The Salton Sea (2002)

In ''The Salton Sea,'' the speed-freak world that Val Kilmer's grieving trumpeter enters into after the murder of his wife is a slick, quirky, and frenetic trip. Alas, once the buzz of ''The Shield'' director D.J. Caruso's crackling style wears off, the substance of the tale -- Kilmer's attempted drug buy from a psychotic, noseless dealer (a deliriously wacky D'Onofrio) and the convoluted double cross that follows -- becomes an unstable mixture of grief, violence, and black comedy. Well, the high is good while it lasts.