Invasion of Privacy

For a guy whose name is synonomous with the word psychotronic, screenwriter and sometime director Larry Cohen almost always delivers the political goods. He took on the FBI in The Life and Times of J Edgar Hoover, out of control police in Maniac Cop (a series that needs resurrecting in these days of Reichsfuhrer Giuliani), religious mania in God Told Me To, and, er, giant flying reptiles in Q. Invasion of Privacy echoes back to Cohen's It's Alive, only this time the monster isn't the baby, it's the father. What could have been another trite 'my spouse is an axe-wielding wacko and I found out too late' straight to cable exercise is actually a very interesting look at abortion, men's 'rights', and 'family values' in contemporary America. Recommended.

The movie was very intriguing and had very good high's and low's. It was a bit predictable nonetheless an excellent film. The movie's plot and script over-all was fabulous but the constant multi-screen and the way it was put together seemed to fail itself. Over-all, the script gives me a bias opinion to rate it excellent.

The first half of this movie was 'wooden'. The first half of the movie reminded me of a poorly produced high school play, The second half would have been a little better if the director had not decided to multi-screen it continuously ruining the section that might have redeemed the plot.

Theresa Barnes (Mili Avital) works with her friend Cindy Carmichael (Naomi Campbell) in a flower shop. One day she stumbles with Josh Taylor (Johnathon Schaech) in an amusing park and she believes he is her Prince Charming. They move in together and soon Theresa is warned by a scared woman that Josh is a violent unbalanced man. Further she learns that she is pregnant and she has an argument with Josh. She leaves him and decides to abort the child, but Josh anticipates her movement and manipulates her obstetrician Dr. Shuman (Scott Wilkinson) and her parents. Theresa decides to travel to an isolated cabin by the lake in the woods, and locks her in a pitch black room. When the local storekeeper Sam Logan (R.G. Armstrong) passes by the cabin, Josh kills him. Theresa tries to escape and Josh brings her to the city and releases her in front of a group protesting against abortion. Theresa tries to abort the child but Dr. Shuman refuses to do the procedure. Then she goes to the police, but Josh manipulates the media and hires the efficient attorney Deidre Stiles (Charlotte Rampling) to go to the court. Sergeant Rutherford (David Keith) believes that Theresa is telling the truth and tries to associate the death of Logan to Josh. What will happen in the trial?

"Invasion of Privacy" is a conventional thriller based on a polemic theme – the right to an abortion by a woman. Josh is manipulative, mentally unbalanced and a killer, but Theresa is unconvincing in her attitudes. Charlotte Rampling is elegant and beautiful as usual and her character is impressive with great lines. The conclusion is predictable and the Theresa's kiss on Rutherford is totally unnecessary. The soundtrack of Angelo Badalamenti is another plus in this film. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Inimigo Íntimo" ("Intimate Enemy")

I saw this on HBO years and years ago and can't find it anywhere to see it again and see if it's still good or I'm just making it sound a lot better than it really was. I used to really like "life time" type of movies and this movie falls in that category. If I remember right the acting wasn't all that good and some of the lines were cheesy but what really hooked me was the story line with the classic boy meets girl, fall in love and boy is really a crazy guy. Only this one went even farther because it was about her choosing to get an abortion and the crazy boyfriend steps up and tries to stop her. So in a way you think that he's not all that bad even though he is and she's trying to do something that not everyone approves of. I remember just seeing it and thinking wow this is something new to the whole abusive relationship type of movie. So I really want to see this again so I can if it's a good movie or not. Because when I first saw it I was just starting middle school maybe.