Le prix du doute

Well okay it was a cold wet Sunday and I did not really feel like taxing the brain cells so ... I sat down and watched this on DVD. Rebecca de Mornay is usually worth a look at so all I can say is I tolerated it. I am biased as you will later see. A few twists and turn at the end add a little spice to this okay thriller. Otherwise Ms. Rebecca just carries on type-casting herself that is; see "The Hand that Rocked the Cradle". This I lament has done her no good at all. Oh yes ... a few sexy scenes from Ms. De Mornay are always nice to watch. After all I was a teenager just like Tom was, about the time she did Risky Business and she was a big part in many a dream then. After this credit to her she is still somewhere in my dreams.

Okay, so it's really a seven, tops, but I really think it deserves a whole lot better average than a 4.8. Definitely worth the rental or late night HBO simply for it's oddity. A strong, crazy, powerful woman, too.

This is not a diamond in the rough. It's also not terrible. Don't go looking for this movie. However, if this movie happens to find you, and you don't have much to do, watching it may not be the worst idea.

The whole picture is very phoned in, but it's not disrespectful to the form of the phoned-in picture. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the best thing about this film is the writing. The acting is competent, but it's nothing special, and the whole thing is shot plainly, like most watchable direct to video, but the writing is just a little bit better. It's unambitious, of course, but it's artful, and it's not too heavily cliched. It plays with obvious symbols and simple tropes, but it does a generally good job of it, and the fact that the story keeps moving in novel directions and does not degenerate into porn or gunplay shows that the writer probably has it in his or her power to write for much better pictures.

There's one or two jumps in the plot, but if you're the unforgiving type, you shouldn't be watching cable TV at 4 AM in the first place. All in all, not a bad movie. Objectively, it can't be said to be of any quality, but it certainly does not offend.

It was very enjoyable watching this film and trying to figure out just what direction the director was taking the audience. Rebecca DeMornay (Ruth),"Backdraft",'91, was very attractive and very sexy as a suspecting wife and went to all kinds of expense to trap her husband in any way that she could. Michael Rooker(Matt),"The Replacement Killers",'98, tried to satisfy two wives and I must say he did a pretty good job of making both of them smile and laugh at times! Mark Rolston(Tom),"Blade Runner",97, Ruth's next door neighbor soon got the hots for her and turned out to be quite the lover. If you love Rebecca DeMornay and good acting by Michael Rooker and Mark Rolston, this is a must see film. The actors must have had their LAUGHS acting in this film!

My wife and I both really liked this movie. Think of it as a Tom and Jerry or Roadrunner cartoon. It is obviously over the top in believability, but it is FUN to watch. DeMornay's charater's booby traps are straight out of the Rube Goldberg school of complicationicity. Rooker's double-life husband is lifted directly from the letters to Dear Abby and Ann Landers. Throw in the wild card next door neighbor(s) and what do you have? Video Hoo Ha. Ethel (my wife, my name is Ed) and I have rented and rerented it. The plot is as goofy as anything the old Warner Brothers animators could have concocted. We took it as a black comedy the first time we viewed it and, with that in mind, enjoyed it more each time after. (Oh, jeez, did I end a sentence in a preposition?) Think funny, and this film will work for you.