Passion of Mind

Demi Moore is excellent in this intelligent drama about a widow living with her children in France who keeps going to sleep and waking up as a single career woman in New York. The double life is so effectively convincing that she can't tell which of the lives is real and which is the dream. On top of this, she has romantic interests in both lives, a controlling and passionate writer in France (Stellan Skarsgard), and a giving and kind man in New York (William Fichtner, his best performance yet). Moore's fascinating screen presence keeps this movie going even when it sags terribly in the middle, and Ronald Bass' script makes such a compelling argument for both of her lives that it's very difficult to guess for yourself what the outcome will be. The film's conclusion is so well played out and rewarding that it renders any previous flaws completely void. Also features a rich performance by Sinead Cusack.

Slightly bland love story with psychopatological elements where a woman lives two different lives in different countries (France and New York,US) but is unable to distinguish which one is real and which is just a dream. The movie has high production values but could have gone much further on its premise. An ultra romantic soundtrack doesn't help either.

Demi Moore is a very beautiful woman, and once again she proves that beauty alone cannot carry a movie. I've seen many of her movies, and only one of them really stands out to me as one that's worth watching more than once, and that's "A Few Good Men" - but it's worth watching for Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson. Demi is basically window-dressing there.

"Passion of Mind" is typical Demi stuff. She has a troubled life as Marie/Marty - troubled because she isn't sure which one she really is; one life is a dream, the other reality. As Marie, she's a mother of two in France, as Marty she's a high powered literary agent in New York. Then in both lives she falls in love: in France with William (Stellan Skarsgård) and in New York with Aaron (William Fichtner.) The movie at times is confusing as she shifts from one life to another (which is all right, because it surely points to the confusion she has herself in trying to sort out reality from fantasy) and although there are hints from the very beginning as to which life is real (I took a guess that turned out to be right almost right away, but it was a guess) it does remain a mystery until the end. The last fifteen minutes or so of the movie add the needed emotional heart-wrencher as she says good-bye to those in her fantasy world and prepares for life in reality.

All fine. The primary problem with the movie is that Demi is living out two lives, neither one of which - quite honestly - are all that interesting, and which, as a result, don't make for particularly interesting viewing. In the end, this is a pretty standard Demi Moore movie. She doesn't offer a particularly energetic performance, but she's OK, and the movie isn't particularly good, but it isn't awful either.

5/10

I never knew this film even existed untill about a week ago. I saw it on sale at a supermarket and i was intrigued by the synopsis of the story at the back cover. I love this type of stories about paralel universes but i was not sure that a story like this could work properly as a serious romantic drama. Particulary one made-in-Hollywood. Basicaly i feared that this was another comercial sugar coated Jennifer Lopez-Julia Roberts comercial movie. I was wrong. I rented this movie totaly convinced that it was going to be bad, but, after the movie ended, i went back to the supermarket and i bought a copy for myself ! PASSION OF MIND was a real surprise to me. I´ve been reading plenty of bad reviews about it after i´ve seen it, and i can´t disagree more with them. I guess most people don´t realy get it´s idea and so rather than thinking about it, they decided the movie sucks. Possibly because it doesn´t follow that usual love-story comercial crap that make Hollywood´s so called romantic movies, most people don´t like it, because this PASSION OF MIND is a movie where you have to think along and you don´t have everything totaly explained all the time. But above all it´s an original movie, and a very good diferent aproach to a romantic story without making it look plastic.

What stroke me first was the incredible cinematography. I never before seen New York filmed in such a beautiful way. The exterior locations looked trully beautiful and it´s a real viewing pleasure just to see a good story set against such beautiful images in the background. As for the plot, i think it´s a brilliant concept and a very inteligent way of telling a romantic story. Ok it might not be the most original one if you read a lot of sci-fi novels, but in this case it was extremely well presented, with never a dull moment despite the slow pace the story moves along. A great for story for people who like "sci-fi" themes and for people who don´t. Great script, good dialogue, good ending and it keeps its mistery right up untill the end ,without giving much away through out the whole film, making us stay glued to the tv set untill the movie finaly ends. (The region 2 dvd, has an incredible image and a fantastic 5.1 sound mix wich fills the room with a perfect 3d atmosphere)

If you like stories about paralel realities, and you like this sort of existencial themes and hipotesis, you´re going to love this movie. As someone said in a review back here somewhere, this is a real good quantum mechanics movie, wich depicts very well some of the concepts present in those theories without complicating things for the viewer. Above all it makes us think and wonder. It´s a great movie to initiate a discussion about the theme afterwards and a very inteligent and beautiful romantic story. Pretty impressive actualy. As i said, a real good surprise. If you like originality, watch this. If you only like guns, explosions and special effects, stay away because you won´t get it. PASSION OF MIND is trully an execelent surprise.

This movie is not about thrills and chills. It is about self discovery, self nurturing, settling of one's past, I think. The pace is slow and gentle.

There are quite a few cues in the movie that are confusing as one tries to figure out the real world versus the dream world. However, the chemistry between Demi Moore's character (Marty) and William Fichtner's character (Aaron) seems more substantial, although initially, less romantic.

In trying to figure out what is really going on, as I viewed the movie, I felt a little off balance. The dialogue is really good. There is a lot of truth about relationships revealed here.

This movie is worth checking out especially if you want a change of pace.