There is something worse than watching an inept movie — watching a one that had some promise and blows it.
This will likely go directly to video because of multiple deficiencies.
The plot:
We have a celebrated writer who has just written a book on honesty in relationships. During the writing of this, he gets married to someone he dearly loves. One night, they are attacked and she disappears, apparently killed. In the year since, while waiting for legal matters to settle, some puzzling, but minor questions pop up.
Our writer meets another woman, quite different. She nurtures him and like his lost wife, she feeds his creative writing urges. She solidly replaces the dead wife, helped by the suspicion that she (the first wife) had some secrets. A new marriage is in the works. Everyone is happy.
We slowly are introduced, noirwise, to a seemingly powerful agency. We learn not much overall about who they are, but by steps we know they are some mix of spies and thieves. The mystery deepens. We discover that the dead wife worked for them. We even discover a secret room in the house, with all manner of tradecraft.
So we have a sort of Mrs Smith situation, but without the fantasy. We enter Hitchcock territory, with a conventional macguffin — a suitcase of untold riches that we are chasing. But it is a modern, folded Hitchcock, because of the matters of trust, introspective writing, love. By now in terms of cinematic ambition, we are where "Vertigo" left off. The first wife returns and engages in the chase. There is conflicting evil and sliding loyalties.
But wait, we take an abrupt turn into even more interesting territory. The second wife, the one that was certain where the first one wasn't? Well, she it turns out is an agent of some other unnamed federal group, and was only with our writer as part of an investigation. She is chasing the macguffin too. But she REALLY loves our man, it turns out.
Maybe.
As the action heats up: chases, fights between the two women, death, cruelty... we are left with all sorts of emotional shifts, moving from one urge to another, lost in a hypnotizing array of desires and beguiling tension. Eventually, the writer chooses the first wife, revelling in her mysteries and tension, producing his greatest books.
Or such is the promise of this construction. In reality, every stroke of this that could grab or compel is not something that pulls us along, but a whoosh of missed opportunity. Every bullet misses. Every seduction by the writer (both of and in the movie) fails.
An example: There is a noise in the house. Danger! Writer creeps along. An attack! No, just a cat screech-jumping in front of the camera. In fact, the screech seems to have come from the same recording of stock sound effects that the hokey score does.
Where were the mysteries, the seductions?
Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.
This will likely go directly to video because of multiple deficiencies.
The plot:
We have a celebrated writer who has just written a book on honesty in relationships. During the writing of this, he gets married to someone he dearly loves. One night, they are attacked and she disappears, apparently killed. In the year since, while waiting for legal matters to settle, some puzzling, but minor questions pop up.
Our writer meets another woman, quite different. She nurtures him and like his lost wife, she feeds his creative writing urges. She solidly replaces the dead wife, helped by the suspicion that she (the first wife) had some secrets. A new marriage is in the works. Everyone is happy.
We slowly are introduced, noirwise, to a seemingly powerful agency. We learn not much overall about who they are, but by steps we know they are some mix of spies and thieves. The mystery deepens. We discover that the dead wife worked for them. We even discover a secret room in the house, with all manner of tradecraft.
So we have a sort of Mrs Smith situation, but without the fantasy. We enter Hitchcock territory, with a conventional macguffin — a suitcase of untold riches that we are chasing. But it is a modern, folded Hitchcock, because of the matters of trust, introspective writing, love. By now in terms of cinematic ambition, we are where "Vertigo" left off. The first wife returns and engages in the chase. There is conflicting evil and sliding loyalties.
But wait, we take an abrupt turn into even more interesting territory. The second wife, the one that was certain where the first one wasn't? Well, she it turns out is an agent of some other unnamed federal group, and was only with our writer as part of an investigation. She is chasing the macguffin too. But she REALLY loves our man, it turns out.
Maybe.
As the action heats up: chases, fights between the two women, death, cruelty... we are left with all sorts of emotional shifts, moving from one urge to another, lost in a hypnotizing array of desires and beguiling tension. Eventually, the writer chooses the first wife, revelling in her mysteries and tension, producing his greatest books.
Or such is the promise of this construction. In reality, every stroke of this that could grab or compel is not something that pulls us along, but a whoosh of missed opportunity. Every bullet misses. Every seduction by the writer (both of and in the movie) fails.
An example: There is a noise in the house. Danger! Writer creeps along. An attack! No, just a cat screech-jumping in front of the camera. In fact, the screech seems to have come from the same recording of stock sound effects that the hokey score does.
Where were the mysteries, the seductions?
Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.