The five-year relationship of a bickering couple in a fantasy-version of Las Vegas comes to a boil when travel agent Frannie decides to walk out (she wants a little excitement, but Hank the mechanic is a homebody). They each link up with other partners, but will "true love" win out? Lavishly-designed studio-shot drama from director and co-writer Francis Coppola stars the talented Frederic Forrest and Teri Garr and has an amazing look of unreality; however, while we're transfixed by the production design and admiring Coppola's visual craftsmanship, the characters of the piece fall away, failing to take shape. The leads are uninteresting anyway, and are easily upstaged by their new paramours, Latin smoothie Raul Julia and pixyish showgirl Nastassia Kinski (who has the film's best scene walking a tightrope, lifted from "King of Hearts"). The country music by Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle hopes to work as a narrative theme, when actually a stronger screenplay might have sufficed. *1/2 from ****
Review of One from the Heart
