Les trois vies de Karen

Gail O'Grady performs here as a young woman suffering from fugue amnesia (repressed memory), forgetting blocs of years due to an inability to handle emotional stress, resulting in a compulsion to establish completely new beginnings. Her condition occurs twice, in each case inspiring a flight to fresh surroundings to avoid forms of mental distress with which her conscious mind cannot cope, and as the story begins she is Karen Winthrop, planning her wedding with her fiancé Matt (Tim Guinee). Shortly before the scheduled nuptials, an attorney, Paul Riggs (Dennis Boutsikaris), bewilders her by revealing that she is his wife Emily, vanished for four years, and that they are parents of a nine-year-old daughter, and during subsequent efforts by Karen/Emily to discover the truth about her other life, a third persona, Cindy, turns up from around a hidden corner of her past. As should be expected, the woman finds that dealing with these revelations is a bit knotty, as will a viewer having the many unanswered questions raised by a script that, while initially intriguing, fails to come alive during climactic scenes due to flawed plot contrivances, telegraphed dialogue, and a surfeit of choppy flashbacks. Set and shot in and near picturesque Southport, North Carolina, the film profits from good production values and contributions from the crew, with acting laurels going to Boutsikaris for his nicely stratified playing as Paul Riggs whose re-entrance into the amnesiac's life convulses her existence.

Gail O'Grady, a very compelling actress best known for her countless appearances in American television series, plays the leads in this strange and fascinating television feature film. I say leads rather than lead because she plays Karen, Emily, and Cindy, all of whom are the same person. Or at least, they inhabit the same body. However, she/they is/are not someone/people who turn violent when switching personality, as is so often the case. In this story, events so traumatic and painful that total amnesia results cause Cindy first to become Emily and then Emily to become Karen. None of these three personalities is violent. They are all quiet, pleasant, but suffering. Multiple personality cases are rare, but they are undoubtedly genuine. Anyone doubting this should read Professor Ernest Hilgard's classic book DIVIDED CONSCIOUSNESS (1977). O'Grady manages the difficult feat of being convincing in portraying all of this, and the states of confusion and anguish which accompany the transitions and the amnesic fugue states. It is very difficult to cure multiple personality cases, and the generally favoured approach is an attempt to fuse them, although partial fusion is usually considered sufficient when there are too many personalities, so that one or two sometimes get left out. Dual personality cases are the most common, because there are only two, and the more personalities there are, the rarer the case. Certainly there are instances of seven or more. Treatment is made difficult because one or more of the alternative personalities is convinced that it will be 'killed' by the treatment, so it sabotages it. Only a handful of extremely skilled and knowledgeable therapists are able to deal with these cases. Most psychiatrists are absolutely hopeless and totally helpless when faced with such a case. In this film, we see a psychiatrist talking twice briefly to Karen/Emily/Cindy, but that can hardly be described as treatment. Many lurking secrets of the past come out as this story progresses, and we eventually learn why Cindy turned into Emily and Emily turned into Karen to try to get away from intolerable stress involving murder and major emotional trauma. Tim Guinee is very good as the man who loves Karen (the latest model) and is on the verge of marrying her when a man turns up who calls her Emily and claims that he is her ex-husband, played creepily by Dennis Boutsikaris (and the creepiness is later shown to be justified). Monica Bugajski does very well as the young daughter of Emily whom Karen has forgotten, but with whom she comes together again. This naturally leads to all kinds of emotional turmoil and distress. David Burton Morris did a very good job of directing this film, and the script by David Chisholm is written very carefully to avoid excesses and lack of conviction, so that he must have done his research. This film is only available on VHS, not on DVD.

This is an interesting mystery drama about a woman who seemed to develop three personalities: soon-to-be wife of a cop, missing wife of a businessman, and foster child of a bitter mother. This of course develops a crisis for the woman because of her impending wedding with the cop and her being already the wife and mother to another family. The riff and unknown situation create an interesting level of suspense.

The third personality of the foster child caught in an abusive relationship adds onto the intrigue of the movie. All the personalities were delivered in suffering and dramatic fashion, and actress Gail O'Grady gives a convincing performance. It's not multiple personality disorder, but three different lifestyles in one body unbeknownst to one another.

Most of the characters' performance weren't bad. The daughter character was annoying though. The plot was steady paced, though left some lose ends, and could have used more exciting moments. It's not a bad movie, though, to spend an hour and a half on a weekend.

Grade B-