Suiting into Someone Else

Before he was reincarnated as the voice of an iconic talking car in NBC’s hideous re-hash of “Knight Rider”, waaaay back in 2002 Val Kilmer starred in the D.J. Caruso freak-fest “The Salton Sea”.

In one of the most overlooked films of his career, Kilmer portrays trumpet-smith Tom Van Allen playing drug-addled police informant Danny Parker on a roundabout quest for… what else… total revenge. Aided/hindered by Adam Goldberg and scene-stealing Peter Sarsgaard as Jimmy the Fin, Van Allen finds himself involved with suburban terrorists, meth heads, arms dealers, crooked cops, and Pooh-bear, the nose-less, gun-toting, redneck master of the drug universe played brilliantly by character actor extraordinaire Vincent D'Onofrio (“The Cell”, “Steal This Movie”).

Kilmer’s suit-up scene in “The Salton Sea” comes after a first act binge of narcotics, alcohol, and playing snitch with the cops. In a bathroom, in a shitty apartment in an apparently shittier part of town Danny Parker starts to shed his skin. He removes silver skulls rings from each finger, then from a tangle of necklaces unknots a gold ring, what was once his wedding band. Cut to the shower where he washes the temporary green coloring from his hair. In the mirror again he combs his hair back, in contrast to the faux-hawk we’ve been used to up to this point.

From a dark closet shelf he takes down a padlocked trunk; unlocks it. What’s inside doesn’t look like it belongs to Danny Parker, the tattooed squatter punk we’ve seen zoned-out in dirty, crowded rooms full of sweat and drugs; what’s inside is the ghost of Tom Van Allen. On the inside lid we see a California driver’s license that lists his true identity. From an overhead shot we see the bottom contains a neatly folded button-down shirt and slacks; when removed, underneath that is a Lou Bega fedora and leather shoes; all the makings of a snazzy jazzman’s suit.

Over a left to right panning shot were shown all the items in the trunk strategically placed across a bed. The scene dissolves to Parker fully dressed in the suit. From the trunk he takes a small, long case, inside is the last of Parker's jigsaw pieces: a trumpet and a black and white photo of a woman; his passion and motivation.

Hat on, he raises the trumpet, inserts the mouthpiece, readying the shift in persona (and it looks to be a painful one). To himself, he affirms his existence, he says: “My name is Tom Van Allen, I am a trumpet player.” And in the dark, he makes us believe it. As he plays a particularly sad song, he leaves Danny Parke behind; channeling the ghost of his former self, if only for a little while.

It’s a suit-up into someone else, a personality resurfacing, submerged for the sole purpose of exacting revenge; and “The Salton Sea” definately takes a highly stylized and unconventional road to just that. The film asks the question: “What lengths would you go to for revenge?” Kilmer’s character becomes someone else, purposely inserting himself into dangerous situations, directly between he headlights and gun-sights of sociopaths and psychos.

When it’s all said and done, it’s interesting to ask yourself if you’d do the same.