Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 15, 1995 TAG: 9507180001
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It's a complex psychological study that has appeared in festivals and enjoyed a brief theatrical run. But lacking star power and the conventional action-packed plot, it's heading straight for the shelves of the video store. So will two other new films about women, running the gamut from serious drama to cheap thrills.
Producer Roger Corman has based his long and profitable career on two kinds of movies: low-budget, low-brow entertainment and more subtle, more serious foreign films. "Reflections in the Dark" is almost a combination of the two. Writer/director Jon Purdy knew that he wouldn't be able to get much money to make his first feature so he wrote a script that cuts production costs to the bone and depends almost entirely on three strong performances.
It begins as Regina (Mimi Rogers) is escorted to her cell in the men's penitentiary by Colin (Billy Zane), a guard. It's the first trip to death row for both of them.
Seven years before, on her seventh anniversary, Regina killed her husband, James (John Terry). Exactly what she did, how she came to do it and why is the film's point. Her character and motivation are revealed - to a point - in a series of flashbacks and conversations with Colin, who has been following her case for years. Nothing is what it first appears to be. Beneath her steel-hard facade, Regina is a complicated, often contradictory individual, and her relationship with her husband is as multilayered as any marriage.
It really wouldn't be fair to the film or to viewers to reveal too much about her or either of the two men. Purdy isn't interested in easy answers for his three characters. There's no single moment of revelation, no he-did-this-so-she-did-that balancing of the scales. Because the film is so purposefully ambiguous, it may not satisfy all viewers, but it's a refreshing change from most mainstream entertainment, which wraps any and all problems up with neat solutions.
Overall, Purdy does first-rate work, using strong images to depict psychological states and ingenious tricks to maintain suspense. The film's main flaw is the clumsy use of a body-double in key love scenes. They're so out of step with the rest of the action that they call attention to themselves. The sexual element is necessary; it could have been handled much more effectively. Even so, "Reflections in the Dark" remains a solid sleeper. Recommended.
Despite its misleading box art and title, "Desperate Prey" is a serious crime story from Australia about two women who find themselves at odds with a corrupt legal system.
Lucy Darden (Claudia Karvan) is a tough street kid who knows how to play the game. Being locked up in some sort of minimum security women's institution is an expected part of her life until she witnesses the murder of a prominent lawyer and tapes the killing. Being a young woman who's looking out for number one and nobody else, Lucy quickly manages to get herself reincarcerated as an alibi. And for a time, she's able to return to her old life of sullen self-absorption.
Then she meets Diana Ferarro (Catherine McClements), an idealistic lawyer who wants to help her. Before long, Lucy needs all the help she can get.
The film's premise is so unusual that it takes some effort to get into the action at first, and that's made even more difficult by the often impenetrable Aussie accents. But writer-director Danny Vendramini knows how to create striking scenes and, much more importantly, good characters. He got thoroughly believable performances from his two leads, and as long as the action is focused on them, this is a good female buddy picture. I can't claim to have completely understood the conclusion, but that's OK too. Overall, the movie works.
Everyone involved with "Dangerous Touch" seems to have realized they were slumming. And well they should have. Writer/director/co-star Lou Diamond Phillip's film opens with a scene blatantly based on the most salacious moment of Julia Phillip's Hollywood tell-all book, "You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again." From there, the story of a Los Angeles therapist (Kate Verdon) who becomes involved with a mercurial stranger (Phillips) gets even more sordid, kinky and sleazy.
Somehow though, it's not as sordid, kinky and sleazy as it tries to be. Maybe it's a matter of casting. Kate Vernon is no Sharon Stone and Phillips is no Mickey Rourke. Curiously, once the film gets past all the overheated hubba-hubba, it actually becomes more interesting.
Next week: The next action hero - Roddy Piper!
New releases this week:
Star Trek: Generations ***
Starring Patrick Stewart and William Shatner. Paramount. 106 min. Rated PG.
Half sci-fi, half action film, the newest of the "Star Trek" movies brings together Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (Stewart) and Capt. James T. Kirk (Shatner) for some alien-busting and soul-searching. Malcolm McDowell is the evil Dr. Soran. The special effects are excellent, and the movie is, all in all, a lot of fun.
- Katherine Reed
Houseguest **
Starring Sinbad, Phil Hartman. Directed by Randall Miller. Buena Vista (Hollywood Pictures). 106 min. Rated PG for a little rough language, comic violence.
This is not so much a real movie as a longform McDonald's commercial. It's also a vehicle for comedian Sinbad to showcase his snappy verbal wit and amiable screen presence. Director Miller tries to jazz things up with some fancy camera work, but his tale of mistaken identity is recommended for the star's fans only.
- Mike Mayo
Before Sunrise **
Stars Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke. Directed by Richard Linklater. Columbia Tristar. Rated R.
Delpy and Hawke play a French woman and American guy who meet on a train and decide to spend a day and night together in Vienna. This is a talky movie, which isn't a bad thing if the conversation is interesting, a la "My Dinner With Andre." But Celine and Jessie are perhaps a little too infatuated with each other - a little too self-conscious - to sustain interest for two hours.
- K.R.
Boys on the Side **
Stars Whoopi Goldberg, Drew Barrymore and Mary Louise Parker. Directed by Herbert Ross. Warner. 118 min. Rated R.
An attempt to delve into the dynamics of female relationships, particularly the friendship that forms among the three female road-trip buddies. But the script and the Barrymore character are so silly that the movie loses the intensity and authenticity that Parker and occasionally Goldberg manage to create. The best things about the movie are the soundtrack and Parker, who looks like heir apparent to the kinds of roles Susan Sarandon plays so well.
- K.R.
THE ESSENTIALS:
Reflections in the Dark *** Concorde-New Horizons. 95 min. Rated R for subject matter, violence, nudity, sexual content, strong language.
Desperate Prey **1/2 P-Pix. 102 min. Rated R for violence, strong language, subject matter.
Dangerous Touch. *** Vidmark. 101 min. Rated R for subject matter, sexual content, nudity, strong language, violence.
by CNB