The fanciful FATALLY YOURS deserves credit for attempting something different: a gangland reincarnation thriller. But the writing isn't precise enough to balance the past and present, and the directing fails to stylize the time polarities--not to mention the multiple characters struggling
within them.
In the the 1920s, Mafia princess Sara (Sarah MacDonnell) and her mob accountant hubby, Jon (Rick Rossovich), are attacked during a massacre aimed at her mobster father, Grandinetti (George Lazenby). Jon is mortally wounded, but, before he dies, an enemy gangster (Sage Stallone), son of rival
gangleader Palermo (Ralph Monaco), threatens the accountant to get him to reveal the whereabouts of a cache of jewels. In turn, Palermo's son is killed by Sara's dying father.
In the 1990s, real estate agent Danny (Rick Rossovich) finds himself mysteriously drawn to a dilapidated property. Encouraged by his financial advisor, Kip (Steven Langa), Danny buys the property at a price so high that it jeopardizes the life of his father-in-law/business partner, Pauly (Roddy
McDowall), whose gambling debts have depleted company resources. Ignoring Pauly's desperate insistence that he unload the white elephant quickly, Danny moves into the decaying property with his wife, Patricia (Annie Fitzgerald), and returns to working on a crime novel he hasn't touched in years. A
principal figure in his novel, Sara Grandinetti, reaches out to Danny (who turns out to be the reincarnation of Jon); Sara the Ghost advises Danny on how to protect her granddaughter (Danny's wife) from Pauly's creditors who might harm Patricia to pay back her welshing father.
In the haunted house, Pauly's loanshark Sammy (Robert Gentili) finally intrudes to grab the long-buried gems, which he then refuses to relinquish to his boss, traitorous Kip (the reincarnation of Palermo's cutthroat son). The 1920s slaughter replays with new faces, as Sammy shoots Pauly and Kip,
who manages to murder Sammy before expiring. Cleansed of the past, Danny publishes his book, and Sara's ghost rests in peace.
FATALLY YOURS, in attempting to dole out key clues during the unraveling of the present-day saga, makes two miscalculations: the 1920s flashbacks are too repetitive and foolishly linger on surface details, and the 1990s story line isn't invested with enough inherent thrills for a scenario dipping
into real estate fraud and a string of thwarted, cover-up homicides. Also, the supernatural proceedings are both time-consuming and silly, as the much-too-sexy ghost of Grandma Sara invades Danny's sweaty dreams.
Even more devastating to plausibility is Danny's frozen attachment to his word processor. This would-be hero becomes a passive observer, who annoys his wife (and the audience) with his spooked stasis. Considerable reworking might have enabled this misfire to jazz up the neo-GODFATHER cycle, but it
lacks the creative control to recycle decades-old terror as it reverberates with present-day paranoia. (Graphic violence, extreme profanity, extensive nudity, adult situations.) leave a comment
