La fièvre de l'innocence

Paul Preedy (Daniel Baldwin) loses his son Clifford in a pool drowning. One year later, he has separated from his wife (Mimi Kuzyk) and lives in the empty office space of his bankrupted company. While he and his son Tom have a session with therapist Dr. Winston, they encounter the intriguing Arabella Bauer (Leslie Hope). Paul is invited to a mysterious school reunion. Sandy Adams and David King allude to a reason in the past but Paul insists on not remembering or understanding. When Sandy is killed, police Det. Frank Skoufaris (Dean Stockwell) investigates. Paul tracks down his old headmaster Jock Beale (John Neville) who tells him about a scandalous incident in the school infirmary with the three boys and another boy named Victor Dempsey. Paul struggles to remember.

This movie starts like a sad family drama with the child drowning. It really should start with the four boys in the inciting incident. This movie is trying to be a noirish murder mystery with a femme fatale. Some of it is there but it struggles to be any good. There is a big twist at the hour mark. Baldwin needs to show the shock of the reveal but he doesn't. I wonder whether it's his acting or the directions he's given. The overall concept has some intriguing potential but the execution is lackluster and flawed.

1st watched 9/2/2001 - 2 out of 10(Dir-Murray Battle): Strangely put together story which finally makes sense in the end, but gets twisted so many directions that you don't really care when you finally find out what's going on. Baldwin plays his part very low key and none of the other performers seem to be much into this story from beginning to end. It basically is a kind of a murder mystery but were not even sure that there was murder involved until late in the story. At the point where Baldwin's child is in the hands of the killer we know exactly what's happening. There were many problems with this movie including the dis-jointed story that seems to have holes, the lack of coherence in what really happened prior to the current events, and the ho-hum lack of suspense in a supposedly suspense-type movie. The bottom line is that when you don't care for the characters nothing matters and we just sit and wait for it to be over with. Good thing it had a bearable, quick ending.

This movie lacked pizzazz. It seems that the producer could have done something to add more excitement to a rather dull movie. I starts slow and may put you to sleep but does pick up towards the end. Rent it if you really have no other choice at Blockbuster.

This film is like going to watch Scotland play soccer. It seems a good idea at the time but halfway through you think to yourself, what a waste of time! I think Baldwin is the new Rutger Hauer, no sorry, at least Rutger was in one good film. This film is nothing short of gawdawful. Keep your money.

I LOVE the introduction of this movie! It warms up like it will be a really great flick, but BUMMER!! It (almost) stinks! I have to give it credit for originality, and for having a bit of a twist, but I was not moved by it (except for the introduction)! And in my opinion, the introduction is the only thing that makes this movie worth watching.