150 Word Review: 'Thelma & Louise' (1991)
BFFs
Thelma & Louise may be impossible to spoil. Everyone knows the ending. I just watched it for the first time and knew what was coming. I'm surprised how much I didn't want to say goodbye. The compassion and respect that Geena Davis' Thelma has for Susan Sarandon's Louise—and vice versa—is as beautiful as the Southwestern desert director Ridley Scott captures in this deeply human, modern-day western. These outlaws love each other at their messiest.
The politics remain barbed thirty years later. This is the story of two sisters-in-arms who run out of luck in a man's world. And speaking of men, most are creeps or abusers. Brad Pitt is a sexy desperado. Harvey Keitel, an almost honest cop. Those final seconds of our gals in their 1966 Ford Thunderbird are glorious and gutting. One must imagine Thelma and Louise landing on the other side of the Grand Canyon.
I recall a thirsty female reviewer of this movie saying Brad Pitt (an unknown at the time) possessed “a smile that could put feminism back 30 years.” :D
I remember watching it for the first time, as an adult having heard and read about it for years, and the thing that struck me was just how _commercial_ it was (in a good way). It isn't a moody period piece that you have to work your way into -- the story and emotional beats are big, broad, and absolutely effective.