Raising Cain

Yes, it's bad for the man who made Carrie, but it's not as bad as it might be. A lot of it is tongue-in-cheek (witness the long tracking shot of the pet psychologist explaining split personalities) and it has some terrific bizarre moments, not least the scariest drowning-in-a-car scene in film history. It's a very weird movie and John Lithgow gives a great camp performance in it. I don't know if Brian set out to make a schlocky trash movie but that's what he did, and as such, it's fun. Watch it and see.

Despite the fact that he wrote a rather unintelligent script for his 1992 effort, director Brian De Palma's "Raising Cain" is still fast, funny, and, occasionally, very scary.

In order not to reveal too much and spoil this wild little roller coaster ride, all I will say is that John Lithgow plays or at least speaks for five very different roles(!)

De Palma isn't at his all-time best, but Lithgow proves that he is one of the great character actors of our time. Rated R. 95 minutes. 6 out of 10.

Lolita Davidovich runs into former boyfriend Steve Bauer and starts a steamy affair. Her husband John Lithgow has given up his psychiatric practice to raise their daughter, and she feels neglected as he devotes all his time to their kid. After a fairly bizarre series of dream sequences, she finds out her husband isn't who she thinks he is, kicking off an odyssey of psychotic twins, not-quite-so-dead fathers, murder, child kidnappings and split personalities.

I have seen this film a couple of times, and thought it was a brave attempt that didn't really work. I've now watched the new director's cut, and while it fixes some problems ... it still doesn't work. It fixes one major problem by not front-loading a lot of reveals about Lithgow and allowing more of the film to play out as a series of revelations. However, the first part that now focuses on Davidovich, is a fairly incoherent series of scenes of her suddenly waking up and pulling the rug out from under the viewer. Strangely, this cut seems to think that the viewer will be surprised by Lithgow's true nature, but really ... it so badly telescoped that I can't imagine anyone not seeing every surprise coming a mile away.

Truth be told ... many De Palma films relay on ridiculous plot twists and silly reveals, but they do so with style and elegance. This film ultimately fails because it substitutes weird, awkward staging and clumsy sequences where you expect elegance.

Jenny finds herself doubting if she is happy when her ex comes back into town... she reminds herself that she is married to the perfect man, an excellent psychiatrist who's taken time off his own practice to spend more time with their daughter, Amy. He is getting somewhat obsessive about it, though... almost like he's... studying her. De Palma goes so far in this homage to Hitchcock that the entire film is one big tribute to the master, and he plays with the camera as he also loves to do(we get a couple of long takes, one of them 4 full minutes, and one sequence has great use of slow-mo... not quite the subway scene in The Untouchables, of course), and we get a tension-packed, suspenseful psychological thriller(light, in the way that it uses the Hollywood approach to mental problems; it is actually a brutal, disturbing, bloody and violent piece with some strong sexuality... also setting it apart from Alfred's pictures - then again, he might have gone this far if the censorship laws had allowed for it, considering stuff like Frenzy), with a lot of the power coming from Lithgow's inherent creepiness(and he's perfectly cast, if some of what he's asked to do here is awkward... and do not look at the IMDb listings before watching, it will spoil a lot). The characters aren't bad(nothing spectacular, but likable and interesting enough), and the acting is plenty solid. This has a lot going on, especially as far as the plot goes(you may want to give it a second viewing just to make sure you picked up on everything that happened), and not only for a fast-paced movie that doesn't break 90 minutes. The chronology can really confuse you, as well as the score of surprises(and several fake-outs!). And at the end of the day, this is mainly meant to entertain you, and it lacks the kick of credible flicks. The DVD comes with a trailer. I recommend this to any fan of the director, star and the man whose body of work provided the inspiration. 6/10

If there's one word that sums up Raising Cain, it's 'audacious': Brian De Palma, a director not known for his restraint, goes all out with this crazy psychological thriller, delivering a baffling non-linear narrative, commanding a bonkers performance from star John Lithgow, and shamelessly showboating with some outrageous visual set-pieces, including plenty of his trademark slow-motion (accompanied by a lush Psycho-style score by Pino Donaggio) and an extremely impressive, very long continuous take. Raising Cain is a film that appears to be self-parodic, De Palma seemingly mocking his own ostentatious style; I don't know whether this was by design or by accident - either way, it's hard to not have fun with such a delightfully daft, OTT movie.

Lithgow plays husband and doting father Carter, whose wife Jenny (Lolita Davidovich) embarks on an affair with her previous lover, Jack (Steven Bauer). Unfortunately, unbeknownst to Jenny, her husband suffers from multiple personality disorder, and is instrumental in a spate of local kidnappings, which ultimately leads to him framing Jack for murder. The plot jumps back and forth through time, making it extremely hard to follow at times, but it eventually pulls together for the final act, in which Carter (as one of his alter-egos, Cain) and his presumed dead father (also Lithgow), threaten the life of Jenny's daughter Amy (Amanda Pombo).

In addition to the Bernard Hermann style score, De Palma references Psycho with a scene in which Carter pushes a car with his wife's body inside into a marsh, and has his villain dress up as a woman (to evade the police), but this film is not a slavish homage to all things Hitchcock: it's way too unhinged for that. And if I'm not mistaken, there's also a nod to De Palma's Italian counterpart, Dario Argento, the shot in which Jenny kneels down to hug Amy only to reveal that Carter/Cain is standing behind her being borrowed from Tenebrae.

The lunacy culminates in a wonderfully overblown, meticulously orchestrated piece of slow motion chaos that attempts to outdo De Palma's Odessa Steps sequence from The Untouchables, but the preposterous nature of proceedings renders it laughable - and consequently very entertaining if you enjoy schlocky cinema.

6.5/10, rounded up to 7 for the single take that ends in a hilarious close-up of a victim's face: even if you don't like the film as a whole, it's impossible to deny the technical brilliance of that continuous shot.