Flinch

Gina Gershon and Judd Nelson star in this excellent film.

This film is very well done and the performances are terrific. Anyone looking for a good film I recommend this one. Gina Gershon is such an awesome actress. Judd Nelson is really good in this too.

excellent intense thriller film ,keeps you on your toes, enjoyed film.

100/100

Intended as light entertainment, this film is indeed successful as such during its first half, but then succumbs to a rapidly foundering script that drops it down. Harry (Judd Nelson), a "reformed" burglar, and Daphne (Gina Gershon), an aspiring actress, are employed as live window mannequins at a department store where one evening they are late in leaving and are locked within, whereupon they witness, from their less than protective glass observation point, an apparent homicide occurring on the street. The ostensible murderer, Miles Raymond (Nick Mancuso), a local sculptor, returns the following day to observe the mannequins since he realizes that they are the only possible witnesses to the prior night's violent event and, when one of the posing pair "flinches", the fun begins. Daphne and Harry report their observations at a local police station, but when the detective taking a crime report remembers Harry's criminal background, he becomes cynical. There are a great many ways in which a film can become hackneyed, and this one manages to utilize most of them, including an obligatory slow motion bedroom scene of passion. A low budget affair shot in Vancouver, even police procedural aspects are displayed by rote. The always capable Gershon tries to make something of her role, but Mancuso is incredibly histrionic, bizarrely so, as he attacks his lines with an obvious loose rein. Although the film sags into nonsense, cinematographer Glen MacPherson prefers to not follow suit, as he sets up with camera and lighting some splendidly realised compositions that a viewer may focus upon while ignoring plot holes and witless dialogue. A well-crafted score, appropriately based upon the action, is contributed by Hal Beckett. The mentioned dialogue is initially somewhat fresh and delivered well in a bantering manner by Nelson and Gershon, but in a subsequent context of flawed continuity and logic, predictability takes over. The direction reflects a lack of original ideas or point of view, and post-production flaws set the work back farther than should be expected for a basic thriller.

The aspiring actress Daphne (Gina Gershon) and the aspiring lawyer Harry Mirapolsky (Judd Nelson) work in a department store window as live mannequins to survive. Daphne is financially supported by her boyfriend William (Andrew Airlie) that neglects her, and Harry that failed three times in the examination to the Bar Association has a non-requited crush on her. One night, the unfaithful William blew Daphne off and she breaks with him. Harry invites her to go to the store to spend the night partying. They accidentally witness the artist Miles Raymond (Nick Mancuso) killing his model in his car and they go to the police to report the murder. They are attended by Detective "Bat" Fowler (Frank Cassini) that studied with Harry and he does not believe on them. He conducts a superficial investigation and does not arrest Miles. Daphne and Harry decide to quit their job and she moves to his apartment. Meanwhile Miles mistakenly kills Daphne's replacement in the window. Soon they discover that the killer is hunting them down and they need to so something to protect themselves.

"Flinch" is an effective low-budget thriller, with good story and chemistry between Gina Gershon and Judd Nelson. There are many flaws in the story, and maybe the worst is when Daphne unlocks the door of the department store and leaves it open. Why a wife would stay with a killer is also unexplained. Nick Mancuso has a ham performance with grimace in the role of a psychopath. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Vitrine da Morte" ("Window of the Death")

It must be getting hard to come up with fresh ideas for some nut case to be chasing around after someone. It's a pretty basic formula after all. There isn't a whole lot of room for originality. In the case of Flinch, you have two people who know the identity of the killer and he in turn knows they know he killed someone.

Did I mention the two people trying to evade the demented killer are live floor window models for a department store played by none other than Judd Nelson and Gina Gershon? Thankfully they work really well together on screen. That leaves Nick Mancuso to be the obsessed artist/killer who owns an art studio called Torso's. His turn as the baddie is the kind you seen him do many times before.

The story rolls out in a predictable made-for-TV fashion. There's no surprises, no real flair and an abundance of stock characters that would feel right at home in a sit-com. It does what it has to do to be watchable but not a smidgen more. It's not a movie you talk about, set aside time or money for. You catch it late night and maybe you watch it out of boredom. You know the routine.

The dialogue is painful, the plot is sort of melodramatic and Judd Nelson's monotone loses its charm after the tenth second. But Nick Mancuso and Gina Gershon have wonderful exchanges at the end, and their acting separately is nothing short of magical despite the junk all around them. He is quite the subtle antagonist, and she builds layers of the character without seeming obvious. It's worth watching just for Gina and Nick, if you're the sort to watch a movie for the style of acting.