Main Cast: Keanu Reeves, Vincent D'Onofrio, Cameron Diaz, Delroy Lindo, Courtney Love
Release Year: 1996
Country: US
Run Time: 95 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
It's not unusual in the movies for a woman to be torn between two brothers, but she usually doesn't change her mind on her wedding day. Then again, hardly anything goes the way one might expect in this black comedy. Freddie (Cameron Diaz), a pretty but hard-as-nails stripper, dreams of some day dancing in a Las Vegas revue, but for the meantime she works at a seedy dive in Minnesota. Freddie is forced by the owner of the club, Red (Delroy Lindo), to marry his accountant, the less-than-charming Sam Clayton (Vincent D'Onofrio), as punishment for supposedly stealing from the strip joint's till (as a further indignity, Red has also had the word "slut" tattooed on her arm). Sam has a rocky relationship with his brother Jjaks (Keanu Reeves) -- his curious name is the result of a typing error on his birth certificate -- but Jjaks receives an invitation to the nuptials from their mother Nora (Tuesday Weld), and he arrives at the wedding reception only a few hours after he's released from prison. When Freddie and Jjacks meet for the first time, there's an immediate chemistry between them, so immediate that before the evening is out, the new in-laws are making love in a bathroom and Freddie has persuaded Jjacks to run away with her; Freddie has also grabbed Sam's bankroll to finance the unscheduled vacation. Sam, understandably enraged, vows to track them down and enlists the help of Ben Costikyan (Dan Aykroyd), a sleazy career criminal. Feeling Minnesota was the debut feature for writer and director Steven Baigelman. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Freddie (Cameron Diaz) is a former stripper marrying Sam (Vincent D'Onofrio) to repay a debt owed to nightclub owner Red. But Freddie is in love with Jjaks (Keanu Reeves), Sam's brother. Jjaks and Freddie run off together, and Sam finds where they have been hiding and calls the cops. Meanwhile someone calls to blackmail Sam and Jjaks. Sam ends up shooting Freddie in the stomach in Jjak's car, and tries to frame the killing on Jjaks. Sam partially admits his crime to a waiter in the local diner. Jjaks hastily avoids being caught by the police, and eventually Sam ends up shooting and killing Red (Delroy Lindo) when he threatens Sam. Sam confronts Jjaks and Freddie, who had survived the wound, in a hotel room. Sam ends up getting shot when Jjaks and Freddie try to defend themselves. A corrupt Detective, Ben Costikyan (Dan Aykroyd) enters the hotel room and suffocates Sam by holding his hand against his mouth. A few months later, Ben is arrested in his underwear inside his mansion. Jjaks and Freddie have since had a falling out. Jjaks remembers Freddie's dream: that she wants to live in Las Vegas. He takes a cab there and she romantically says "What took you so long?" They embrace each other.
