Deseo y decepción

I don't really understand why this film has such a low rating. Most of the movie is very good. The story, the acting and the cinematography are very good. The story also has a lot of plot twists and the acting is very good. The screenplay is quite intelligent. Only the end is a bit less good, and that's a pity, because this could have been a masterpiece. The end is a bit stupid. Phil Joanou did a good job directing this film. It's a pity this film doesn't get a higher rating on IMDb. Richard Gere, Kim Basinger and Uma Thurman do a good job too. I recommend this film. It's not a masterpiece, but it's certainly not bad.

A San Francisco psychiatrist (Richard Gere) becomes romantically involved with the sister (Kim Basinger) of one of his patients (Uma Thurman) , but the influence of her Greek controlling mobster husband (Eric Roberts) threatens to destroy them both . The gangster is a tyrant over his wife and he really mistreats her. The psychiatrist wants her to get a divorce, but she is afraid of what her husband would do. Then , things go wrong , that's why she has a medical condition that becomes apparent when she drinks . As she says to have a "pathological alcohol intoxication" which is a true real-life medical disorder that can exist. Along the way , a stubborn police inspector (Keith David) investigates some strange happenings and a prosecuting attorney (Harris Yulin) carries out the criminal accusation. Hot-blooded passion. Cold-blooded murder. Someone was seduced. Someone was set up. And before it was all over... someone was dead.

A twisted , glossy and complex thriller about a psychiatrist and two beautiful sisters playing the ultimate mind game . Resulting to be colorful crime thriller with suspense , emotion , action , twists and turns. Although heavily influenced by ¨Vertigo¨ , this movie never closes to attain the depth of Hitch cinematic masterpiece . Actors are acceptable but neither notable , nor extraordinary , but passable . Kim Basinger is the typical femme fatale who undergoes a dramatic personality change after drinking alcohol , Richard Gere acts in his particular style as the psychiatrist uses his professional pull to try and help her out of the consequences of her actions , while Uma Thurman is Gere's sexually neurotic patient , the latter had also appeared in Phil Joanou's former movie "State of Grace" . Likewise , ¨Final Analysis¨ (1992) was second and final of two cinema movie collaborations of actor Richard Gere and actress Kim Basinger , the first was ¨No Mercy¨ (1986) . Other fine secondary actors appearing are the following ones : Paul Guilfoyle of CSI , Keith David , Tony Genaro , George Murdock as judge , unbilled Eric Avari as narrator and uncredited Harris Yulin as state prosecutor , among others . But it's Eric Roberts who steals the show giving the most gripping acting as Basinger's sleazy gangster hubby.

¨Final analysis¨packs a thrilling and suspenseful musical score by George Fenton. As well as an evocative and brilliant cinematography by Jordan Cronenweth. This neo-noir and neo-Hitchcock film was professionally directed by Phil Joanou , it has success enough , though quickly faded from screens after being steamrolled by other big releases . Phil Joanou is an uneven director with film as ¨Gridiron gang¨, ¨Final analysis¨ and ¨Heaven's prisoners¨. For the latter Phil Joanou was hired by Alec Baldwin , in his role as executive producer who approached Phil Joanou to direct the film based on the suggestion of his then-wife, Kim Basinger , who'd had a good time working with Joanou on ¨Final Analysis¨ (1992). Joanou is a good professional with hits and flops and filmmaker of video-clips and films for U2 (¨Rattle and hum¨). As "Final Analysis" and "Heaven's Prisoners" proved to be critical and financial disappointments , Spielberg and Bono of U2 (separately) encouraged Joanou to write something personal and from the heart, resulting in the extensively autobiographical "Entropy". In addition , Spielberg gave Joanou the screenplay for ¨Three O'Clock High¨ (1987), then known as "After School" and subsequently directing the notable ¨State of Grace¨with a great cast as Sean Penn , Ed Harris , Gary Oldman , among others . Rating : 6.5/10. Acceptable and passable. The flick will appeal to Kim Basinger/Richard Gere/Uma Thurman fans.

This film presents something of a dilemma, on the one hand it is an original, psychologically clever and rather twisted with a rather intriguing climax and on the other it is presented as a typical early 90s generic Hollywoodized Basinger/Gere cliché. It could be considered really good, Basinger's performance is actually quite brilliant and if she wasn't who she is but a "serious character actress" and wasn't so damn gorgeous and her character wasn't so clearly a temptress, she'd had probably got some plaudits for it. Uma Thurman equally did rather well although with a little more detachment but Richard Gere seemed remote and rather emotionless despite all the things that happened to him like he was in a trance the whole way through.

Again, the plot, the actual idea is very clever. A woman (which of the two sisters you aren't really sure, or both) is either a brilliant pre-meditated killer, product of a nightmare upbringing and abusive marriage to a callous and rather self-centred misogynist in the form of the dark and horrible (well performed although somewhat typecast) Eric Roberts or she's just a sociopathic manipulative do-anything-to-survive chameleon... and this is played out well throughout the story. Kim Basinger is perfectly cast although playing very much characters she's played before - the blonde beauty, wearing red, the light catching her hair and baby-doll features flateringly etc etc. There's a brilliant bit where a colleague of Gere's is chastising him by saying that no woman is so beautiful as to make a man forget all reason and go against everything he stands for and then he sees Basinger standing in the doorway looking incredible and he just stops talking. Uma Thurman though a beautiful woman in her own right, is perfectly cast as the younger (you presume) sister who is constantly the ugly duckling the "caterpillar" compared to her butterfly sisters and even when she "turns into a butterfly" she is still a pale imitation of the original.

It's difficult to review without giving anything away. There are aspects of this film which I found I predicted, could see coming, but I had no idea how the film would play out, what Gere (playing psychologist) would do, I mean of course the court outcome is to be expected, but that was almost a given in order to set up the totally unpredictable sequence of events and almost gave a false sense of security that you would know how the rest concludes. Typical early 90s fare including the obligatory sex scene, so scripted and paint by numbers (bare behind, bare nipple, dim lighting, sound effects etc) yet non-emotive or engaging and fairly unnecessary for the plot, the film is clichéd in most regards but there's also a dark aggressive and unusual aspect in that it deals with some issues a lot less palatable than most. Take away the clichés and some of the average made-for-TV male performances, and step back a bit and this is actually quite a good film, Basinger giving one of the performances of her life stepping out of her usual totally innocent and just eye-candy comfort zone and the which sister did what aspect you are left which is rather clever.

I am overcompensating here, this should really be a 9/10 but I am so annoyed by the lack of taste shown by the ratings at IMDb that I feel the 1 extra credit is fair enough. I have actually lost all hope of people choosing wisely and making good suggestions on films...Hollywood has made a science out of aiming for the lowest common denominator anyway and making trillions.

It would be great if we could comment comment on an existing review at imd, such as the one by some "licensed clinical psychologist" which has been been chosen as spotlight review. Now this fella in all his psychotherapeutic wisdom acts like a 5 year old and takes this film literally and passes judgment on Gere's character's psychiatric practices. Is he nuts? It's a damn film for Christ's sake, and a neo noir!!! Of course the shrink will cross the "boundaries" with his patients and act unprofessionally and "needily", he's supposed to be setting up a drama. Let alone that these things ALSO happen in real life. Drama's are not set up by shrinks who act according to AMA rules and psychiatric ethics. To pass judgment on the film on such grounds is like saying that Dumbo is not supposed to fly because elephants don't. PLEASE, IMDb, take this review off the front page,it's insulting.

OK. on with the review: THIS IS A GREAT NEO NOIR FILM, ACTUALLY IT'S PROBABLY THE BEST NEO NOIR AND ONE OF THE BEST CRIME/SUSPENSE/LOVE DRAMA FILMS I VE WATCHED.

Why? The plot is intelligent, it has plenty of twists, and surprisingly very few holes in it (that ANY neo noir or crime thriller for that matter even David Mammet is going to have). Even the more clever viewers are going to miss some of the twists and they won't see them coming. But anyway most here complained that it went to fast for them...may I suggest they use a staple of the modern DVD/blue ray/VCR the pause button and reflect in the interim pause...The script is also highly emotionally charged. Of course that's happening within the confines of its genre, it's not a film heavy on realism but provided you abide by the codes of the noir, there's plenty of pain here, shame, longing, distrust, antagonism, hate, love, friendship not only involving the main characters but every single minor character too. It's also very NUANCED which I suspect is why the film warrants the "this film sucks" comment gracing the boards.

All characters are very conflicted, very human, you can't pin them down to a simpleton archetype, the good doc, the manipulative patient, say, because they all have their blind spots and conflicts. I am sure a lot of people will hate this -why's the script writer messing about-, he or she should be acting in this a to b to c predictable way. Yet this is what makes the film so great, far better than the Hitchkokian bore it alludes to.

THE CAST IS ALSO GREAT, EVERYONE. They all nail down their roles to the tee. And then you have the main trio, Richard Gere and Kim Basinger in their prime, and Uma Thurman in one of her budding roles. What else does one want from the lead roles in film? First of all they are all stunning. Now that might not mean much to most in, and it doesn't mean anything to me either most of the time, but these three are not just good looking, they are gifted. They all have a once in thirty years in film charm to them. Seriously folks has their been a more charming lead than the good Buddhist Richard Gere, after Brando, and maybe coming close to him Mickey Roorke and Johny Depp. Who? Mat f. Damon? Gere has such a tender yet tough face, I won't do him justice describing his charisma here in a small review. Anyone who's got eyes can see. And so is Kim, I re-watched the film recently and after all the Scarlett Johansens and Kate Hudsons we 've seen recently you can tell that Hollywood has dropped the ball big time... look at the nineties they had Kim, and Madeleine Stowe, and Jessica Lange and, and, and...this are dirt poor times wrt to actresses' talent.

Kimmie is just fantastic here, the tone of her voice, the understated performance, she oozes charm with a mere glance. He chemistry with Mr. Gere is like hand and glove too. And she's a way, way underrated actress. This girl is up there with the top stars of the 40s, 50s, and 60s, she's a Marilyn. She plays a very complex character here and there's not a single scene where she's not mesmerizing...An all too brief nod -for no other reason than brevity for this review- to Uma and the rest of the cast, I ll just say that the scenes with Uma on the couch have such a suspenseful and seductive mood, the way she phrases her dream and looks at the shrink, Uma another natural talent.

I also really liked the directing here but the 1000 word limit calls. I loved the motifs: the lighthouse, the promise of love, the chance that love and truth above all can undo the damage, the remorseless nature of damage being done and perpetuated. Those who've watched the film will know what I mean, and I am not giving anything away to those who haven't. Last but not least I find George Fenton's score excellent, a really intricate part of the whole film. Maybe it could have been a bit more risky and less classic, but I think this austerity and measured portions of predictability and inventiveness only add to this very classy and elegant film which to me is a lost gem.

Richard Gere and Kim Basinger reunite from 1986's mediocre "No Mercy" for this outlandish, just-as-shallow would-be murder mystery. Occasionally enjoyable, fruity concoction concerns psychiatrist Gere becoming involved with two sexy sisters who are hoping to formulate the perfect murder plot. Lots of story twists, each one more preposterous than the last, but with a slick production and a fine climax atop a lighthouse. Gere looks a bit ill-at-ease, but Basinger and Uma Thurman are both very good. Eric Roberts is eliminated early (a plus), but Keith David flounders in the hopeless role of the detective on the sisters' trail. For viewers in the requisite silly spirit, not too bad. ** from ****