Apology

This one has kind of an odd plot but it has enough twists and turns to keep most people entertained for a few hours. It was interesting for me to have gone to college in Pittsburgh at about the same time and seen familiar landmarks used very effectively, especially their public transportation system.

This thriller benefits from strong direction by Robert Bierman and a top music score by Maurice Jarre. It's rare to find a score attached to this genre that isn't exploitative or overdone, and Jarre is an unusual choice which pays off, though adding lyrics to his theme and having it sung over the credits is a definite mistake. Apology is the name of conceptual artist Lesley Ann Warren's latest project, a phone service she has created to complement her latest "piece". It's basically an answering machine which you can project your guilt onto, but considering this is New York, it's not long before apology means confession and absolution to a nutter, and LAW becomes a woman in peril. Thank goodness she meets Peter Weller as a cop. Weller is such a steadfast presence that it's hard to believe him being psychoneurotic, which he is initially accused of. Warren is more the psychoneurotic type, but then she's an artist. You can guess that writer Mark Medoff doesn't miss any cliches with her conceptual artist role - she is styled badly, has lost custody of her child, and has an attitude. LAW has never been a strong performer. Perhaps only someone like Alan Rudolph in the way he presented her in Choose Me, knows how to overcome her flakiness. Here she is lit unflatteringly, her character is charmless (even given her predicament), and she seems to climax as soon as Weller touches her. Even her Apology project is lousy, where she plans to play the taped confessions, while her audience is trapped in a contraption the size of a train carriage. It doesn't occur to her that she hasn't told the apologisers how their confessions will be used, but then that's her life lesson. Medoff also throws in a sub plot about a serial gay killer (known affectionately in the force as the "schlong biter"), then quickly abandons it. While some late slo-mo sequences are a bit too cute, Bierman builds the chase with cross-cutting, but doesn't really give us a satisfactory conclusion. John Glover and Harvey Fierstein appear to little effect, and Chris Noth can be seen in an early small role.

While these days HBO tv movies are pretty much synonymous with critical acclaim back in the mid 80s they were much more into making sleazy thrillers like this or The Glitter Dome. Peter Weller does a good job given what he has to work with. Hell, everyone does a good job, a lot of fun character actors in this really elevates it above the material. Also Robert Bierman's directing really adds a lot. Bierman is most known for directing Nic Cage's loopiest performance (and thats saying a lot) in Vampire's Kiss, a film that if it didn't ruin his career, certainly couldn't have helped it much. But here he demonstrates quite a lot of talent, both in directing the actors and shooting the movie in a way that makes it visually interesting. Overall I enjoyed this film a lot when I saw it on HBO about 20 years ago and just recently found a copy online. Unfortunately it seems to have suffered the same fate of many of HBO's films of that era (Glitter Dome, Cast a deadly spell, etc..) which have somehow never made it to DVD. Obscure film but if you run across it, give it a watch. Also interesting to note this was based (loosely) on a true story of a real "apology line" that ran in NYC for about 20 years, the real story of the life and tragic death of the real life Mr. Apology is possibly even more interesting than this film.

This film came out when shows like "Oprah" were just starting. The idea of someone selling their psyche for attention and/or catharsis. Before that, we were in the dark ages, when people kept their psychiatric issues to themselves, would never even think of group therapy or AA, let alone message boards on the internet. That being said, the plot is interesting, even if the acting is stylized, and rather artificial.

Lesley Ann-Warren plays a good neurotic- Peter Weller is passable. Harvey Fierstein has an interesting cameo part, as a homeless person. Some of the street shots are creative and interesting. The art project Warren creates is really not unbelievable; If one has ever seen Yoko Ono's exhibits- you will agree!.

The serial killer is portrayed by Jimmie Ray Weeks; he wears a bow-tie and looks like Wallace Shawn (from Woody Allen's movie "Manhattan"). If you want to see something unusual, this movie will fit the bill. John Glover is also in this film, and he always excels at portraying a psychotic New Yorker (he was also in a TV film with Lynn and Vanessa Redgrave- remake of "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane"-not to be missed!).

This is one of the first movies I taped off HBO back in 1986. I just had so much fun with Leslie Ann Warren and Peter Weller and their repartee. They really did have good chemistry together. In fact, I enjoyed that part so much, I wish it had been a bigger part of the film.

The night streets of New York, wet and litter strewn, lends a certain noirish feel to the film. And the music score is very good and evocative.

The story is of an artist who sets up an answering machine to record people who call in to make an 'apology' for something they have done in their lives, and then becomes enmeshed with a madman who kills people but always says he's sorry on her machine.

The ending is a little gruesome, as are each of the murders, but I was caught up in the artist community and the film has been a favorite of mine ever since I first taped it. 8/10

Edited to update and add comments 9/18/08 Jane