Equinox

Early on in 'Equinox' I felt I might be watching 'Slaughterhose-Five's' Billy Pilgrim, "unstuck in time." The film followed two characters, both played by Matthew Modine. One was a meek soul who was continually being victimized by the rest of the world; the other was his polar opposite , a strong-arming gangster. These two threads finally came together with a third concerning a young woman writing a story suggested by a note found on the body of a homeless woman. Alan Rudolph wrote the script as well as directed. He is to be commended for trying something original here but I found his screenwriting not quite able to deliver his quirky vision satisfactorily. Still, I'd have to give the film a marginal recommendation on a straight yes-or-no vote.

'Equinox' is able to boast of a good cast besides Modine, including Laura Flynn Boyle, Fred Ward, Marisa Tomei, Tate Donovan, Lori Singer, Tyra Ferrell, Gailard Sartain, M. Emmett Walsh and Kevin J. O'Connor. I just felt like the execution was not up to the inspiration.

One esoteric note: the soundtrack prominently features eclectic Norwegian guitarist Terje Rypdal.

An old woman dies and leaves an unopened letter from years in the past. A morgue attendant takes the letter and finds that it contains information about a trust fund involving twins. She hunts down the twins, figuring on sharing the money and writing a tale based on the proceedings. As she is doing this the separate lives of the twins is unfolding in a jumbled montage. This film reminded me of "Pulp Fiction" in the disconnected way in which it was filmed. Oddball picture, but well worth the seeing.

This is probably the worst movie I ever saw. I lost 1 and a half hour of my precious Sunday night to watch a trail of elements which had either no connection at all between them, or they had a connection was SO loose that you had to imagine them to find out a meaning. Additionally, the atmosphere is completely neutral, the dialogs annoyingly basic, and the end implies that the main character of the movie is of limited intellectual ability. I wonder how can anyone like this thing. OK, we had enough of silly Hollywood blockbusters, but on the other hand, we had enough of wannabes who try to promote their lack of inspiration as innovativeness, destined to be liked only by superior minds. For hell's sake, there must be a million better movies out there and if you want vague scenarios, go watch the "Lost Highway" or the "Space Odyssey". You don't need to go through this movie's mind torture!

Equinox is a movie that begins with an interesting enough idea, but loses it in the second part of the movie and just becomes a boring drudge. Modine, Marisa Tomei, Kevin O'Connor, M. Emmet Walsh and Fred Ward are all top par actors who are up to the challenge. Lara Flynn Boyle, on the other hand, is seriously underwhelming and gives the movie nothing.

The movie follows twins who don't know of each other's existence. One is good, the other bad. The good twin is much more arrestingly played by Matthew Modine than the bad one; the script also gives the bad one little of interest to do anyway. I couldn't work out what Lara Flynn Boyle was doing in the movie and the character of the writer also eluded me. The movie didn't make me care enough to find out.

This and Rudolph's "Trouble in Mind" seem, to me, to be companion pieces. They both take place in a future that serves to create a mood around the characters rather than spectacle for the audience. They seem to be almost completely forgotten with no DVDs on the cards, and that is a shame since they are both terrific.

Equinox contains great work from Matthew Modine, Lara Flynn Boyle and Kevin J. O'Connor in particular, but this is a quality production from top to bottom. The twin storyline threatens to drag this into the trash but the script dodges a lot of the tiresome clichés that you would expect from reading the synopsis or tag line.

Please ignore the poor rating and bad reviews on IMDb. This one has been severely overlooked.