U Turn

A gambler named Bobby Cooper is driving through the desert with money in his pockets and debts piling up in Las Vegas when his car gives out. He pulls into a small, isolated town he cannot leave until the vehicle is fixed, and the place turns out to be full of strange residents. Among them are Grace McKenna, a young woman in a strained marriage to Jake, a wealthy and calculating property dealer. Bobby becomes involved with Grace, and both husband and wife approach him separately with a proposition: each offers him money to kill the other. The arrangement traps him between the couple while his own pursuers close in.

Oliver Stone directed the film, the twelfth of the twenty-two features he has made to date, following Nixon and preceding Any Given Sunday. John Ridley wrote the screenplay, and Clayton Townsend and Dan Halsted produced. Sean Penn plays Bobby, with Nick Nolte as Jake, Jennifer Lopez as Grace, Joaquin Phoenix as Toby N. Tucker, Claire Danes as Jenny and Powers Boothe as Sheriff Virgil Potter, part of a credited cast of twenty-two and a crew of sixty-seven.

The film was released in October 1997 and runs 125 minutes. Made for around 19 million dollars, it took in roughly 7 million worldwide. Ratings sit in the middle range: 6.7 out of 10 on IMDb from about 57,000 votes and 6.6 out of 10 on TMDB from far fewer, while a critics' score of 6.1 out of 10 from 54 reviews places reviewers slightly below audiences.