Trading Favors

Although this is a good story with a few surprising twists to keep you watching, if it were not for Rosanna Arquette this movie would not be worth seeing.

This film, directed by Sondra Locke, suffers from the plodding pace that is all-too-familiar in movies helmed by "serious" female directors. With essentially no comic relief, TRADING FAVORS crawls from beginning to end, getting no help from the anemic Devon Gummersall (from the TV series FELICITY), who delivers passionless rote in the male lead. Rosanna Arquette is another matter, however. At age 38 when this was filmed, her appearance in a prolonged topless bathtub scene shows that physically she is in her prime, and her acting is just as superb as her looks. It is a shame she gets little or no work in big-budget movies, to which she could bring a good measure of class and glamour.

The most obvious flaw...horrible, horrible script. This movie had a potentially good story, but it was ruined with bad dialogue, continuity problems, things that were never explained, gaping plotholes, sub-plots that went nowhere, and just plain stupidity. Not to mention the awful, cliched directing of Sandra Locke. Not even two great performances could've saved this movie. So it didn't matter that Devon Gummersall and Rosanna Arquette give horrific performances. The thing is, they're better actors than this movie would have you believe. The best of the Arquettes, Rosanna Arquette (Silverado, After Hours, Desperately Seeking Susan) has some fine moments - like a great scene in the beginning when she painfully pulls her handcuffs off - but gives an overall weak performance, by her standards. And Devon Gummersall (Dick, When Trumpets Fade, and the brilliant My So-Called Life) is much worse, acting with no conviction or emotion what-so-ever. But I won't lay blame on the actors, who have been good in other roles. The script is awful, and the bad direction doesn't help. Do me a favor...avoid this movie.

To lanamoore..I have found some cheap VHS copies on eBay. Had no luck on DVDs except in Polish.

There were several copies in VHS. I have been looking to.

Where in the heck can you watch this movie??? I haven't seen it in years.