There's no better way to get people to take an otherwise boring story seriously than by afflicting one of the characters with a disease that has absolutely no relevance to anything whatsoever.

This has to be the way Marcy (Robin Tunney) ended up with Tourette's syndrome. The filmmakers were plodding along happily when somebody pointed out to them that "Niagara" had been done about a hundred times already -- two young kids on the run from the law. "Well, shit," the director probably said, "let's make one of them sick, like give him a disease or something." Suddenly the film became "Niagara, Niagara."

Naturally, this is instantly attractive to an actor because the Academy likes to give Oscar nominations to anybody who can twitch, yell curse words and act dazed as long as the reason for it is listed in the DSM-IV. To make matters even more clichéd, Marcy tells Seth (Henry Thomas) that sex helps her tics. How convenient. Not much of a movie if young Marcy's Tourette's is only alleviated by bathing under a flow of warm horse urine, is it?

Throw in that element of random violence and there you've got it: "Rain Man" meets "Reservoir Dogs." Marcy has a weird disease marked by uncontrollable urges to beat the crap out of people and grab their firearms. If only this film could have taken place at an NRA meeting.