THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 17, 1995 TAG: 9509150060
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E11 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
WITH TOUCHES of ``The Bad Seed,'' ``The Tie That Binds'' proposes that genes can be a nasty thing - particularly in the worst of families.
Vincent Spano and Moira Kelly adopt little Janie in record-breaking time. They're a ``nice'' couple, so nice that every stereotype is trotted out, even to singing hymns around the piano. He looks like a slightly hunk, even though he's cast as a construction worker. She looks so young that she might be up for adoption herself. (She was one of Charlie Chaplin's young squeezes in ``Chaplin'').
They get a rude awakening when they learn that little Janie is not really an orphan.
They might have suspected something was wrong when she began cutting her hands with the bread knife and walking down the middle of streets.
Janie's biological parents, always waiting in the wings, are Keith Carradine (looking menacing) and Daryl Hannah (looking gorgeous, in spite of the role). They're a kind of ``Bonnie and Clyde.'' They want their daughter back and are determined she won't be raised as a yuppie kid. With poor-white-trash determination, they go after everyone who had anything to do with spiriting Janie away from them. This provides the usual list of victims (a cop and an adoption official).
It's adoptive parents vs. biological parents, and may the best couple win. Of course, the good-guy parents run to an isolated country location where they will be perfect targets.
The final showdown is silly and prolonged. This subject has been handled with more suspense on the ``Geraldo'' show. The outcome here is highly predictable, and morally reprehensible.
Director Wesley Strick can't hide the script's lack of detail by using all kind of overhead shots and zooming effects.
There is an interesting, and strange, preoccupation with religion. Hannah's character seems to be a religious fanatic, in spite of her tendency to resort to violence. She's always glaring at a Raphael painting of Madonna and child.
Arty touches can't conceal the fact that the characters are undeveloped. There are few details on background or motivation. This is nothing more than another mindless melodrama with snarling evil on one side and angelic goodness on the other. No surprises. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``The Tie That Binds''
Cast: Daryl Hannah, Keith Caradine, Moira Kelly, Vincent Spano
Director: Wesley Strick
Screenplay: Michael Aurebach
Music: Graeme Revell
MPAA rating: R (several killings, more threats)
Mal's rating: One 1/2 stars
Locations: Chesapeake Square, Greenbrier in Chesapeake; Circle
4, Main Gate in Norfolk; Kemps River, Lynnhaven Mall, Pembroke in
Virginia Beach
by CNB