"Leaving Normal," a road picture mixing comedy and tragedy, is the story of two disparate women whose only common bond is that both are tired of their go-nowhere lives.
They come together in Normal, Wyo., where Darly (Christine Lahti), a foul-mouthed, cynical waitress and former stripper, picks up abused, yet naively optimistic housewife Marianne Johnson (Meg Tilly), who is crying on a bus bench after leaving her second husband.
They head out to take possession of a piece of property Darly owns in Alaska and along the way encounter a bevy of eccentrics and contrived situations, some funny and some just odd. Highlights include their meeting with an unhappy, overweight waitress (Patrika Darbo) who is in search of Mr. Right, and a poet/trucker (Lenny Von Dohlen) who is enchanted with Marianne.
On the whole, "Leaving Normal" is just a low-rent "Thelma & Louise" . . . without the guns. It has potential as a parable of survival in the '90s but never fulfills its promise as directed by Edward Zwick ("Glory") and written by Edward Solomon (the "Bill & Ted" movies).
The cinematography, however, is stunning, and the performances are uniformly excellent. And Lahti once again shows off her considerable talent, which is all too often showcased in lesser films like this one. (Her best moments come when she is forced to baby-sit a pair of young children and, her big dramatic moment, when she almost sells herself for $500 to a drunk who remembers her strip-tease days.)
"Leaving Normal" is rated R for considerable profanity and vulgarity, some violence and blurry nudity (a stripper in the background of a bar scene).