L'Esprit de Caïn

Lolita Davidovich runs into former boyfriend Steve Bauer and starts a steamy affair. Her husband John Lithgow has given up his psychiatric practice to raise their daughter, and she feels neglected as he devotes all his time to their kid. After a fairly bizarre series of dream sequences, she finds out her husband isn't who she thinks he is, kicking off an odyssey of psychotic twins, not-quite-so-dead fathers, murder, child kidnappings and split personalities.

I have seen this film a couple of times, and thought it was a brave attempt that didn't really work. I've now watched the new director's cut, and while it fixes some problems ... it still doesn't work. It fixes one major problem by not front-loading a lot of reveals about Lithgow and allowing more of the film to play out as a series of revelations. However, the first part that now focuses on Davidovich, is a fairly incoherent series of scenes of her suddenly waking up and pulling the rug out from under the viewer. Strangely, this cut seems to think that the viewer will be surprised by Lithgow's true nature, but really ... it so badly telescoped that I can't imagine anyone not seeing every surprise coming a mile away.

Truth be told ... many De Palma films relay on ridiculous plot twists and silly reveals, but they do so with style and elegance. This film ultimately fails because it substitutes weird, awkward staging and clumsy sequences where you expect elegance.

Raising Cain (1992)

*** (out of 4)

Jenny (Lolita Davidovich) believes that her husband Carter (John Lithgow) is the perfect man but what she doesn't realize is that his father messed with his mind a little too much and now his past is going to come back and haunt him.

Brian De Palma's RAISING CAIN was always a very disappointing movie to me because I felt it had so much potential but it never fully came out in the film. Director Peet Gelderblom would eventually re-edit the movie in a cut known as RAISING CAIN RE-CUT and director De Palma would praise it saying that this version is what he originally wanted to do with the film but he regretted changing his mind at the last second. Now this "Director's Cut" is available on Blu-ray and we can finally see this film for what it was meant to be.

I'm not going to give away any major spoilers but it should be said that the Director's Cut contains every frame that was in the Theatrical Cut. The only difference between the two is the way that they are edited and I must say that it's really amazing how much better the Director's Cut is. In fact, after viewing this version it becomes a complete nightmare why someone as great as De Palma would turn in the Theatrical Cut because it just doesn't play very well and a lot of the build up in the suspense department is just lost.

What is also more apparent in the Director's Cut is the flow of the film. If you're familiar with De Palma's work then you already know that he loves to keep a certain style and flow in his films and it's much more clear in this cut of the movie. The opening scenes really set you up for the thriller that is going to follow and I thought the entire movie played much better. It certainly helps build up the suspense as the madness of the Lithgow character slowly builds until he eventually breaks. The "clues" that De Palma gives off are a lot more shocking when they finally reveal themselves as well.

The one great thing about whichever version you watched was the performance of Lithgow. He's playing multiple characters here with multiple personalities and he perfectly brings them to life and really creates a rather creepy and mentally disturbing character. I thought Davidovich was a bite too light here but we get some nice supporting performances including the one from Steven Bauer and Frances Sternhagen.

Most people considered RAISING CAIN a major disappointment but I would ask, or beg, those people to give the movie another chances in the Director's Cut. It really goes to show how important editing is and how a bad edit of a movie can ruin it.

If there's one word that sums up Raising Cain, it's 'audacious': Brian De Palma, a director not known for his restraint, goes all out with this crazy psychological thriller, delivering a baffling non-linear narrative, commanding a bonkers performance from star John Lithgow, and shamelessly showboating with some outrageous visual set-pieces, including plenty of his trademark slow-motion (accompanied by a lush Psycho-style score by Pino Donaggio) and an extremely impressive, very long continuous take. Raising Cain is a film that appears to be self-parodic, De Palma seemingly mocking his own ostentatious style; I don't know whether this was by design or by accident - either way, it's hard to not have fun with such a delightfully daft, OTT movie.

Lithgow plays husband and doting father Carter, whose wife Jenny (Lolita Davidovich) embarks on an affair with her previous lover, Jack (Steven Bauer). Unfortunately, unbeknownst to Jenny, her husband suffers from multiple personality disorder, and is instrumental in a spate of local kidnappings, which ultimately leads to him framing Jack for murder. The plot jumps back and forth through time, making it extremely hard to follow at times, but it eventually pulls together for the final act, in which Carter (as one of his alter-egos, Cain) and his presumed dead father (also Lithgow), threaten the life of Jenny's daughter Amy (Amanda Pombo).

In addition to the Bernard Hermann style score, De Palma references Psycho with a scene in which Carter pushes a car with his wife's body inside into a marsh, and has his villain dress up as a woman (to evade the police), but this film is not a slavish homage to all things Hitchcock: it's way too unhinged for that. And if I'm not mistaken, there's also a nod to De Palma's Italian counterpart, Dario Argento, the shot in which Jenny kneels down to hug Amy only to reveal that Carter/Cain is standing behind her being borrowed from Tenebrae.

The lunacy culminates in a wonderfully overblown, meticulously orchestrated piece of slow motion chaos that attempts to outdo De Palma's Odessa Steps sequence from The Untouchables, but the preposterous nature of proceedings renders it laughable - and consequently very entertaining if you enjoy schlocky cinema.

6.5/10, rounded up to 7 for the single take that ends in a hilarious close-up of a victim's face: even if you don't like the film as a whole, it's impossible to deny the technical brilliance of that continuous shot.

It's disappointing when a movie starts well and then kind of derails by the end the way Raising Cain does. I'd liken it to another De Palma film from the 90s, Snake Eyes. Each get off to a strong start and have good first halves, but become noticeably less interesting in the second half (though neither is terrible overall).

What works here is John Lithgow. He's really great, and shines when playing the various personalities that his character moves between (whether this is at all accurate about multiple personality disorder at all is a whole other matter, and I'd understand people finding it offensive and dismissing it if they did believe it was an unfair or potentially dangerous depiction).

Funnily enough, the movie starts to feel like it's splitting off in multiple directions, but not in a good or thematic way. Suddenly, Lithgow's wife has a voiceover? And a melodramatic infidelity subplot? Too much time's spent on it- if you have Lithgow doing great acting and it's cut away from so much!

Then there are other various characters who are all introduced awkwardly, and the finale is all a bit underwhelming... it's a shame, because this starts as a very promising psychological thriller, and ends up being a bit disposable by the end. For a good first half and somewhat shaky/not great second half, I think splitting the score halfway to be a 6/10 is fair.

Despite the fact that he wrote a rather unintelligent script for his 1992 effort, director Brian De Palma's "Raising Cain" is still fast, funny, and, occasionally, very scary.

In order not to reveal too much and spoil this wild little roller coaster ride, all I will say is that John Lithgow plays or at least speaks for five very different roles(!)

De Palma isn't at his all-time best, but Lithgow proves that he is one of the great character actors of our time. Rated R. 95 minutes. 6 out of 10.