Line #43 Film/TroubleInMind


1	[[quoteright:185:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/trouble_in_mind_5.jpg]]
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3	''Trouble in Mind'' is a 1985 American FilmNoir (neo-noir) directed by Alan Rudolph. It features Creator/KrisKristofferson and Creator/KeithCarradine. Also Divine without drag (although he still looks pretty campy)
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5	The film is set in a Rain City, a pseudonym for Seattle in this case. A couple of a criminally-inclined husband, Coop, played by Creator/KeithCarradine and his caring young wife, Georgia (Lori Singer), with a child arrive to the city in the same time when a cop (Hawk) is released from the prison where he served a term for murder. They meet in a diner led by a tough proprietor, Wanda (Creator/GenevieveBujold), an older flame of the cop.
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7	Coop also meets a black urban philosopher-cum-criminal, Solo, who leads him futher down the road of depravity. On their path they collide with the local criminal boss Hilly Blue played by Divine and his rival, Nate Nathanson. Coop then starts to transform his appearence under the influence of Solo, from a regular small-town guy he gradually turns into the parody of David Bowie.
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9	Hawk, on his part, has to fight his internal demons, also he without much effort fights Coop to protect Georgia (and at times tries to protect Coop from much worse criminals too). The demons of Hawk are pretty serious as he is not always gentlemanly with Georgia or Wanda.
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11	----
12	!! Tropes
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14	* AlliterativeName: Nate Nathanson, the criminal leader of the gang competing with Hilly Blue's.
15	* AntiHero: Hawk is pretty definitely this:
16	** In one scene he [[spoiler: rapes or nearlty rapes (as in the last minute she gives in herself) Wanda.]]
17	** He is callous with Coop too.
18	* BettyAndVeronica: The blonde innocent young mother Georgia and tough street-savvy Wanda.
19	* BeyondTheImpossible: Coop (as well as Hawk) During the final big shootout [[spoiler: they both pass through the crowd which shoot at each other and remain unharmed. People all kill one another but Hawk goes his way through the mansion where the shootout takes place to the car and is never hit. Hawk who is previously hit by Hill Blue also does not suffer any other wound]]
20	* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Solo [[spoiler: is put in the car full of water.]]
21	* BoomHeadshot [[spoiler: That is how Hilly Blue is killed.]]
22	* BulletHolesAndRevelations: [[spoiler: In the scene where Coop has Hawk and Hilly Blue at the gunpoint the former grabs the gun of Coop and they start to fight. Hilly Blue is then starting to shoot indiscriminately at Coop and Hawk fighting. Hawk turns around and makes a PrettyLittleHeadshots in his head. Then he says Coop go away which the latter does. Then it is revealed that Hilly Blue actually hit Haw in the left side of his body.]]
23	* CelebrityResemblance: Never implied in-universe but Coop at certain point starts to look like Bowie.
24	* CountryMouse: Georgia is this when she arrives to Rain City.
25	* CityNoir: Rather Rain City, also known as Seattle. It is not black and white, rather colorful as it is shot in 1985, post-Blade Runner.
26	* CoolTrain: Seattle elevated metro system. It actually includes only two lines but it is shot so expertly one would think it goes nearly everywhere in the city.
27	* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Probably not the cruelest out there however Solo ends up in a car standing on the firm ground which is somehow [[spoiler: full of water inside in which he is drowned.]]
28	* DamselInDistress: Georgia.
29	* {{Determinator}}: Coop pretends to be the one but falls flat on his face.
30	* DidNotGetTheGirl: Played straight with Coop [[spoiler: who survives but voluntarily quits Georgia and joins the military.]]
31	** Arguably [[spoiler: subverted by Hawk who in the final scene drives the car and the other front seat is not shown, then Georgia appears from camera left caressing him. It might be his dying dream as he is hit by the bullet of Hilly Blue but might be not]]
32	* DoorStopBaby: Georgia in the minute of despair leaves hers in the car of a visibly well-off family [[spoiler: Pretty soon Hawk gives the baby back to her.]]
33	* EverybodyHasStandards: No villains here are completely villainous.
34	* EveryoneIsArmed: Played with, at the big party near the end females are not armed but most males are. It results in a huge shooutout.
35	* EvilIsHammy: Hilly Blue played by Divine.
36	* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Coop gradually turns into the most parodic version of Creator/DavidBowie no less.
37	* FilmNoir: Mid-80's version, Neo-Noir.
38	* FreudianExcuse: Hilly Blue invokes that. He says his mother never kissed him once. [[spoiler: Hawk talks fondly of his mother in reply.]]
39	* FryingPanOfDoom: Georgia in one scene uses it to protect herself from [[spoiler: Hawk the antihero who harasses her in this scene asking to come out with him for diner extremely insistently while she repeatedly refuses.]]
40	* GreyAndGrayMorality: Hawk is an antihero with many flaws while Coop is an ineffectual sympathetic villain. Both gang leaders also are not totally black. It is indeed a grey world where most people are doomed but no-one is without any redeeming qualities.
41	* HandicappedBadass: Hawk has a visible limp. Which does not prevent him from doing anything.
42	* HeterosexualLifePartners: Coop and Solo become that even though once Coop mentions that he does not care with whom make money, he is only anxious to make it.
43	* HookersAndBlow: Played with at the orgies of Coop and Solo because blow is not seen, just booze and tobacco. Hookers galore though.
44	* ImAManICantHelpIt: Invoked by Hawk to Wanda as he is recently out of prison.
45	* IneffectualSympatheticVillain: While Coop hurts some people on his way he is ultimately that, his actions are frequently inept, also Hawk always has the upper side in their confrontation without much effort. [[spoiler: In the end Coop even survives and joins the military.]]
46	** Arguably Solo too [[spoiler: he dies in a carful of water.]]
47	* JustGotOutOfJail: Hawk in the beginning.
48	* MuggingTheMonster: That's what Coop and Solo try to do when they rob Nate Nathanson. [[spoiler: it ends in a partial failure. Coop and Solo have to run away as Nate suddently takes possession of a gun and shoots at them. Both Coop and Solo manage to escape with the jewels they earlier took when they still had him at the gunpoint. However the whole scene establishes that Nate Nathanson is a badass while both Coop and Solo are ineffectual criminals.]]
49	* OppositesAttract Cultured Solo who quotes poets and philosophers and uneducated Coop.
50	* APartyAlsoKnownAsAnOrgy: Coop and Solo have the one TWICE. [[spoiler: The second time Georgia surprises Coop.]]
51	** The trope is invoked by a girl in the second scene who says to [[spoiler: Georgia]] that they are having party while it clearly looks like an orgy.
52	* PrettyLittleHeadshots: Played straight with [[spoiler: Hilly Blue]] whose mortal wound is exactly this.
53	* RunningGag: Coop several times hits with the opening door the head of the diner employee washing the floor who always is positioned on all fours near that door. [[spoiler: InstantKarma in the person of Hawk ensues most of the time.]]
54	* SaveTheVillain: That's what Georgia asks Hawk to do for Coop. [[spoiler: In the end he manages to and probably all three survive.]]
55	* SissyVillain: Hilly Blue is somewhat tough but he is still ultimately this.
56	* WickedCultured: Solo the street philosopher.

Context Film / TroubleInMind