Rachel Ward is beautiful, so there is nothing strange about men falling for her like skittles, the power of her beauty being so self-assured, that they never even become aware of how they are being manipulated until, at best, it is too late. She has had a husband who is dead, apparently by some accident, as she says, but she never tells the truth, or at least keeps withholding essential parts ot the truth. Bruce Boxleitner is an honest teacher very much appreciated at his school by both colleagues and students, he used to climb mountains with Rachel ten years ago, so when she suddenly turns up after ten years they go climbing again, as they still have one challenge left to conquer. We will have to wait till the end of the film for the outcome of that challenge.
Sela Ward is his wife, and they have a wonderful daughter together. They are a happy family, when Rachel Ward turns up as a challenge to their happiness, as she has just killed a rapist of hers and needs the law to save her from murder charges, and Bruce's wife happens to be a skilful lawyer who gladly accepts her case, since she has had interesting rape cases before. At the ensuing trial, the details of the trauma are being publicly exposed in meticulous scrutiny, and Rachel is even called as a witness to testify to her own outrageous trauma. Is this actually standard procedure at American trials? Is there no sensitivity, no delicacy, no consideration for eventual post traumatic stress? Both Sela Ward, the lawyer, and Rachel Ward, the victim are surprisingly callous and almost inhumanly distanced in the penetration of the details of the outrage. The thriller reaches some apogee in the final climb of the ultimate mountain, in which Rachel Ward is still cocksure of having to win over her competitor. It is thrilling indeed, but things never turn out how you would wish them to, not even by the most clever manipulation.
