Deconstructing a contemporary women's film by infusing it with a noirish aura, DECONSTRUCTING SARAH never blends its two personalities and ends up immobilized by its polarities, much like its crisis-state heroine.
In the corporate world, executive Sarah Vincent (Sheila Kelley) is a finely-tailored ad agency workaholic who after work tones up with her best buddy, homemaker Elizabeth (Rachel Ticotin), in aerobics classes and dotes on Elizabeth's young daughter. After sunset, however, Sarah changes into a new
slinky wardrobe and a new name, Ruth, to become the sexual aggressor in singles clubs and bars. The pressures of competing like a man by day and playing like one by night propel Sarah/Ruth into some dangerous beds, particularly one with her own private "Mr. Goodbar," Kenny (A Martinez). Although
Sarah calls the libertine shots, ex-con Kenny senses a meal ticket and jockeys to blackmail his lover at her place of work. When dependable Sarah fails to materialize for a sleep-over, suspicious Elizabeth alerts the nonchalant cops and then assumes her own late-night investigation into Kenny's
activities--which includes his beating up of his passive girlfriend Dottie (Caroline Williams). Undercover as a sex worker, Elizabeth finds Sarah's corpse and Kenny--who appears the guilty party--sadistically orders Elizabeth to quit playing amateur sleuth. At Sarah's apartment, Elizabeth's
husband Paul (David Andrews) races to her rescue, but not before Elizabeth knocks Kenny out the window. Having already heard taped confirmation of needy Sarah's dalliance with Paul, however, Elizabeth realizes that Paul murdered Sarah to hush up their inconvenient affair; his wife decides not to
shield him from the law.
Considering the devastating impact of the film's last-minute revelation, Ticotin's character seems unusually nonplussed. This lack of satisfying emotional closure to the storyline may also be the failure of both the script and the performances of the actresses; neither portrays a believable
friendship between two dissimilar women. There seems to be as little connection between these best friends as there is between Calvinist Sarah and her slutty alter ego Ruth--but at least the latter dynamic thrusts the plot forward. Despite trying to toss out a few likely candidates for Sarah's
executioner and despite Martinez's sexually-charged performance, seasoned mystery buffs will quickly sense they're being led down blind alleys; the upright husband is easily guessed as the murderer. What is missing here (in addition to the lack of authenticity in the Elizabeth-Sarah bond) is the
sense that Elizabeth is driven to solve her friend's murder as if her own identity depended on it. More in-depth script structuring would have been required to place the film's psychological issues into sharper relief. Unable to pull the wool over viewers' eyes, the mildly tantalizing
DECONSTRUCTING SARAH say less about undying friendship than it does about how little we know our friends.
Finally, the film purports to explore feminist issues within the context of a fatalistic thriller, and the movie's direction is sleek and crafty enough to distract viewers into thinking that it is doing just that. However, getting maximum erotic tension out of its bar pick-up segments, the film
works best as a reactionary tale about the dangers awaiting women who dare to challenge directly the male sexual ego. (Violence, profanity, sexual situations.) leave a comment
