Hands of a Stranger

What great promise this had, but what a "yawner" it was. I saw this on the Lifetime Cable Network, all in one sitting. I assume when it aired originally in 1987, it was in mini-series form, or shown over several nights. I guess seeing it in smaller installments, it would be more tolerable, but it just dragged, and dragged, and dragged.

I thought with the talent involved, this movie had huge potential, but I was snoozing by the third hour. As I said, I'll assume that in hour long chapters, this might have been more enjoyable, but as a four hour showing, it was not fun, at all.

The concept was good, but it took waaaaaaaaay too long to get the story moving, and at times, the actors seemed to be sleep walking thru their roles. Yes, we know Armand Assante is trouble by what's going on, but the act becomes really tedious. I'm amazed "Joe Hearn" kept his job, for as long as he did with all the time he was away from the office.

If you dig "The Repercussions of Adultery" type movies, this will suit you just fine. If not, "The Weather Channel", is a better watching experience...

Doesn't this movie remind you a lot like the new movie "Derailed"? When I first saw the preview for Derailed I immediately remembered a movie with Beverly D Angelo, where she has a fling, someone breaks into the hotel room, her and the Guy (the fling) are tied up or handcuffed, bad things happen to Beverly's character. I haven't seen Derailed yet. And I have not heard from anyone else that these movies seem a lot alike. In the reviews I've read Clive and Jennifers characters have a fling and a Bad guy breaks in and rapes Jennifer's character, and then there is a major twist. Also the reviews on Derailed have not been the best. But just from the reviews and the trailer I thought Derailed had to be a remake of this old movie I had seen years ago. And only located it today on IMDb under Beverly D Angelo.

I am seeing Derailed this weekend and will update.

Armand Asante must have gained more of an understanding of gender roles from his Italian father than from his Irish mother because he is so much more believable as a hard-boiled macho cop than he would be as a drunken poet. He's got the cop down pat here.

The story starts promisingly enough. Asante doesn't understand or pay attention to his wife, DeAngelo. She dyes her hair and asks him what he thinks about it. "Your hair? What did ya do to your hair?" The guy is genuinely puzzled.

Subsequently, in a wanton moment, DeAngelo agrees to go to the sort of motel room usually called "seedy" with her son's narcissistic basketball coach. She backs out of the affair at the last moment but as she opens the door to leave, a stranger enters with a gun. He robs them both, has them strip, gags and blindfolds them, and then rapes Mrs. Asante. When he's gone, the handsome coach makes an abrupt departure, telling her, "I was never here."

That is, roughly, a half an hour into the film and constitutes its most interesting part. What follows makes "Gone With the Wind" look like a technical manual. Mrs. Asante feels guilty about having been in the motel room with the coach so she concocts a story about having been abducted while alone on the street. Asante becomes suspicious. He begins to tape his wife's phone conversations and follow her around. Meanwhile he has an overly warm relationship with Blair Brown who is in the movie for that sole purpose. Let's not get into it. Several hours later the story gets back on the rails. The rapist, who is given the spiciest lines of dialogue and has a most engaging way of delivering them, kind of while looking like Hume Cronyn, finally reappears and tries blackmailing the wife and the coach. He fails. Assante has a pistol pressed against his neck and the rapist asks, rather reasonably, I thought, "Sir. I mean no offense, but shouldn't it be your wife you shoot instead of me?" And, "I can see, sir, that there is a part of you that is conflicted over killing me. It is that part of your character I would like to address." (Doesnn't do him any good.)

This is a long movie and could, and should, have been cut almost in half without losing a thing. Langeurs are okay if the time is taken up with character development. There are plenty of soft spots in good movies like "Chinatown," where nothing much happens except that Nicholson gets a shave in Barney's barber shop. A five-minute sequence of Nicholson getting shaved, having an argument with another customer, and listening to a joke. There are no such five-minute sequences here to breathe life into what is, in the end, another rather routine cop thriller with a lot of domestic drama padding it out.

This was my first time to see this movie. I enjoyed watching Armand Assante as well as Beverly D'Angelo and Blair Brown. The story line was very believable and intriguing. I will definitely be adding this one to my home library.

1st of all whoever said this movie was only 2 hours & 10 minutes long must have seen a Butchered severely Edited version of it because I just saw the entire film and including the credits it's 3 hours,5 minutes and 46 seconds long. A 2 part miniseries about a cop who's bent on solving his wife's rape. even without her wanting him to . This film has twists and turns and things you wont expect but is written like real life .They don't make movies like this often . this is not a cookie cutter clone like so many. it is a well written well acted TV movie worth a watch .