Don't Talk to Strangers

This was decent film, not worth getting totally excited about, but still very much recommend. The problem is that if you haven't seen this film by now, you probably won't unless someone puts it out on DVD. It's been over 10 years since I saw this, and the photography was good enough to make want to see this again, this time on a widescreen DVD format.

For a film that isn't well-known and stars an unknown actress (along with the known Pierce Brosnan), this was a well-acted, nicely-filmed movie. It movies well and has some nice twists to it, guaranteed to keep the first-time viewer interested. It will keep you guessing.

Terry O'Quinn played the best role in here, in my opinion. Reed did a nice job of acting but I didn't care for her persona. Kudos to Richard Leiterman for his photography.

What I didn't understand was the movie's "R" rating. There was very little profanity in here, very little blood and no nudity. What gives? It did read "R" on my VHS tape.

During an acrimonious divorce and custody battle, Jane Bonner meets and marries Patrick Brody (Pierce Brosnan). When Eric, Jane's son, goes missing, suspicion immediately falls on her alcoholic cop ex-husband who has been stalking the couple. But Jane uncovers a secret that every mother dreads.

Pierce Brosnan puts in an excellent performance, transitioning from charming to ruthless with ease as the plot unravels. It's a neat thriller which fools you into thinking it's a typical "husband stalks son and wife" but it smoothly twists into something else. There are some dull bits but that's kept to the minimum and it's quite tense at times with some clever misdirection.

The first thing I'll say about the film is this. Pierce. Yes, the mighty mighty Pierce. Don't be fooled though, just because of Pierce factor it doesn't mean that this movie is good, far from it infact. From Pierce demonstrating his culinary skills at making vegeburgers, to Pierce being violently assulted while sitting on a stool eating said vegeburgers this movie is poor, and believe me, it could have been better but for the directing. Pierces acting is nothing short of grade A, but the entire film seems pushed along quickly, and that, combined with the bogstandard plot makes it seem like the director wanted the maximum amount of Pierce in the movie, hoping that that alone would hold up the movie, sadly it didn't

Verdict - Bogstandard plot(0) + rushed scenes(0) + Peirce(4) > 4/10

A conventional genre for filmmakers may be titled Theatre of Paranoia, within which are copious examples, this piece being one, wherein a protagonist is stalked or harried or wrongly envisioned or trapped or prejudiced against, i.e., in some way made to suffer by, generally, one person distracted by jealousy or some other mania. The victim here is Jane Bonner, splendidly played by Shanna Reed, who is tormented by her former husband Robert (Terry O'Quinn), a police detective with an extraordinary amount of free time who is maddened due to the disbanding of a joint custody agreement for the ex-couple's eight-year-old son, during divorce proceedings, Bonner's harassment becoming so acute that Jane and her new spouse Patrick (Pierce Brosnan) decide to leave their Saint Louis home and drive to California to start life anew, only to have Bonner trail them. Director Robert Lewis paces the film solidly during its initial scenes only to have his efforts hamstrung by excessive cutting along with a disjointed screenplay that is heavily reliant upon fancy, in addition to below standard post-production work (e.g., a car following Jane and Patrick is seen being driven from both sides of the front seat by its sole occupant), and a garish lack of knowledge concerning law enforcement procedures is only too evident.

Throughout this foolish affair that the film becomes, Reed shines, easily gathering in acting honours with a subtly layered and credible performance, and O'Quinn also acts well, especially in light of his written dialogue. Richard Leiterman's cinematography is expert as always and fitting underscoring is contributed by Joseph Conlan, but the scenario's collapse into nearly total incongruity and odd character metamorphosis becomes too great of a handicap.

It's interesting to see what shape Pierce Brosnan's career was in before Bond arrived on the scene. In this "tense" thriller, Pierce Brosnan plays the gentle Patrick, who works leading ghetto kids on "confidence courses". He romances a woman, who has a bog-standard mop-top mid-90s kid called Eric. The woman's drunken ex-husband soon arrives on the scene and begins to mess with Pierce.

At one stage Pierce is innocently making "vegeburgers". The husband enters. Pierce resumes making vegeburgers. The husband then assaults Pierce. Little chunks of half-eaten vegeburger call fall from Pierce's mouth. The fight abruptly ends without showing the outcome. This is as good as the film gets.