Slick, pointless attempt to repackage VERTIGO and SPELLBOUND for the taboo-laden 9Os. Psychiatrist Isaac Barr (Richard Gere) is treating Diana Baylor (Uma Thurman), an apparently neurotic young woman who harbors repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse. Her sister, Heather (Kim
Basinger), appears on Isaac's doorstep one night to fret about Diane, who now has a gun and displays every sign of breakdown. Diane's plight, however, is temporarily forgotten as shrink and sister fall predictably into bed.
After Heather returns home to Jimmy (Eric Roberts), her reptilian, domineering husband, we learn that she has problems of her own: drinking wine at a restaurant with Jimmy, she has a myserious attack of "pathological intoxication." Later, the now smitten Isaac shadows Jimmy and Heather at a bar;
Jimmy spots him and creates a scene. Arriving home, Heather liberally swigs some cold medicine, then kills Jimmy, driven temporarily mad by alcohol. Only after a trial, resulting in Heather's confinement in an insitution, does Isaac discover the truth.
Director Phil Joanou has shot some impressive sequences with gifted cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth, but this machine-tooled Hitchcock pastiche lacks the stylistic integrity, thematic depth, and simple conviction that distinguished even Hitch's minor work--let alone VERTIGO and SPELLBOUND. leave a comment
