Cody Zamora (Madeleine Stowe), Anita Crown (Mary Stuart Masterson), Eileen Spenser (Andie MacDowell), and Lilly Laronette (Drew Barrymore) are prostitutes in the small Colorado town of Echo City. Cody kills a particularly rough client beating on Anita who refuses to kill anybody after the death of her true love. She is about to be hung when the girls rescues her. They are pursued by Pinkerton detectives Graves and O'Brady hired by the widow. Anita has a homestead claim in Oregon that she wants to start a saw mill with. Cody has over $12k to make the start. When the Pinkertons catches up at the Texas bank, Cody's old partner Kid Jarrett (James Russo) shows up to rob the bank and he takes her money to lure Cody to him. Eileen is captured by the town and Cody gets beaten by Kid Jarrett rescued by Josh McCoy (Dermot Mulroney).
This was a great opportunity for women to lead a western. It should be a lot more than what this movie actually turned out to be. The sets look cheap and the style looks weak. This needs a great director to push a gritty tough style. Director Jonathan Kaplan has fallen into TV show directing after some early big screen success and there is a good reason for that. His style isn't cinematic or grand enough for a big adventure movie. The visual style is lacking. The ladies are all terrific actresses. The story rambles on and on. The tone is all over the place. This is a mess. There is a bit of good action at the end, but it's too little too late.
This was a great opportunity for women to lead a western. It should be a lot more than what this movie actually turned out to be. The sets look cheap and the style looks weak. This needs a great director to push a gritty tough style. Director Jonathan Kaplan has fallen into TV show directing after some early big screen success and there is a good reason for that. His style isn't cinematic or grand enough for a big adventure movie. The visual style is lacking. The ladies are all terrific actresses. The story rambles on and on. The tone is all over the place. This is a mess. There is a bit of good action at the end, but it's too little too late.