Hard Promises

One can always count on the IMDb - no matter how bad, how awful a film is, there will be four or five people who invariably give it ten stars and say it's a great film. I mean, I have yet to find the film listed where this does not happen.

Hard Promises does not have one laugh, one real moment, one near-touching scene (even the young daughter's scenes - and I'm a sucker for emotional scenes between parents and children) - the dialog is terrible, the film has not one iota of charm, the direction is blander than bland. The actors all do what they can, but there is nothing to do but work hard to try and make something out of nothing.

Of course, when one does a little further research, one finds that the film was universally panned by just about everyone, and, in its one week engagement at actual movie theaters, it became one of the lowest grossing films in history - a whopping $360,000 or thereabouts. Not many films achieve THAT kind of gross. Great film? No. Good film? No. Bad film? Yes. But, there are obviously four or five people for whom this worked - so, that's something.

I'm about to sit down and watch this movie. The reviews that are posted I find confusing as there are apparently eight people who don't know what they're talking about with assorted reviews between 7 & 10 and two "visionaries" who have rated it a "1".

The movie was about a woman's ex-husband coming to town the day before her second wedding to stop the wedding. Similar stories have been filmed many times but the acting made all the characters believable and likeable. Sissy Spacek and William Peterson were very effective in the lead roles and all the supporting players were right on the mark. People addicted to a lot of non-stop action, rather than talk, should look elsewhere.

William Petersen is excellent as a thirty-something good ol' boy and absentee husband who is about to grow up a bit as he's forced to face some uncomfortable facts about himself. Sissy Spacek is his newly divorced wife who is about to remarry when he comes barreling back into her life to prevent it....These two would have never gotten married if they had had a good astrologist do their charts in detail; he's very much a Sagittarius, probably with afflicted aspects in his sixth house, whereas she's a dyed in the wool Cancer. They obviously have great physical chemistry but severely conflicting emotional and psychological temperaments and needs. It took her 12 years of anguish to divorce him even though they still love each other. He's trying very hard to win her back and nearly does but ultimately she's more adult then he is and her resistance though nearly crumbling, persists. The film stands as a perceptive and sympathetic study of basically incompatible characters with a knowing and abiding understanding and fondness for each other who will never be able to weld into a viable union.

How do you let go of that "first love" when he's not the right one? A wonderful film with, finally, love and acceptance at the end. What do you do when the high school prom king you married turns out to be a clown, or Peter Pan who will never grow up?

"But you're my home; you can't leave." "You used our home like a motel"

as she finally marries someone else.

He then goes for the little girl, his daughter, who also finally sees through his "promises" and says "Daddy, you don't have to make promises you can't (or won't) keep... I love you anyway, just the way you are."

Love and acceptance: so easy to say, so hard to do... a heck of a wonderful film to promote the reality of relationships and the beauty of the "stable guy" who may not make your heart race, but is there for you thick and thin.

Something to think about, for a long long time. Who wrote the great title songs with screaming guitar? Where can I purchase a CD?