Paixões Paralelas

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.

How much one enjoys this film depends greatly on how much of Demi Moore you can stand. If you like long drawn out schmaltzy romances with Demi as the romantic heroine, you will love this film times two. Otherwise, hide any weapons lest you begin attacking your screen.

This film was toasted by the critics, but I didn't think it was that bad. In fact, I liked it. I guess I fall more into the first (sucker for schmaltz) category. The story was criticized as being a contrived version of `Me, Myself and I', where a woman is torn over the choice between life as a professional and the family shtick. That criticism really misses the point. This is a story about a woman's psychological attempt to deal with her traumatic past and has nothing whatever to do with lifestyle choices.

I found this to be an intelligent and complex character study of a woman who seems to be two people living two lives, but really isn't. If that seems cryptic, see the film and it might become clearer. When she goes to sleep from her life with her children in France, she wakes up to her high-powered career in New York and vice versa. She can't determine which is real and which is a fantasy. She has a lover in each life and both seem very real to her. As the story unfolds, she and we try to figure out which is her real life and which is the dream.

The trouble with the presentation is that its real intrigue lies with the psychodrama. Unfortunately, neophyte director Alain Berliner pushed that element to the background and cranked up the schmaltz machine, centering the story on the romances instead. That wouldn't have been so bad if they weren't so interminable. Scene after scene retraced the same romantic theme, until it became frayed.

Other than the misplaced emphasis, the film was well crafted. There were subtle hints throughout about which was the real life, but they were far from obvious tip-offs. However, when we finally discover the truth, it takes forever to wrap up the loose ends. To Berliner's credit, the locations were breathtaking, in both France and New York. It is easy to find beauty in the French countryside, but these were some of the most wonderful film perspectives I have ever seen of New York's skyline and street vistas.

After enjoying a few years as one of the highest paid entertainers on the planet, Demi Moore disappeared for three years. This was probably not the best vehicle for her return. Her performance was strongly emotional but one-dimensional, failing to differentiate the characters sufficiently. She played the high-powered NYC girl to be just as wimpy as the insecure girl in France. To be fair however, she created two very appealing and vulnerable romantic characters and deserved better notices than she received.

William Fichtner was not the greatest choice for her NY love interest. Fichtner is better at abrasive antagonist roles and his attempts at sensitivity came across as far too pathetic. Stellan Skarsgard was much better and made a dashing and attractive romantic figure.

This was a good story that took a sentimental detour under the guidance of an inexperienced director. Still, it was engrossing and even touching at times. I rated it a 7/10. Add a point if you like sentimental pieces and subtract at least two if you aren't a Demi Moore fan.

Surprisingly absorbing film that requires your patience (to let it unfold) and your attention (to capture all the nuances, and they are there). Demi Moore (looking angular and pale like Courteney Cox-Arquette, yet more flexible) is very fine as a woman living parallel lives, one of which is a dream-world. She's a widowed book reviewer in France with two kids and also a literary businesswoman in New York City. Complicating matters are two separate lovers (and shrinks!) who all say that the OTHER life she's having is a dream. Plot is laid out in elementary terms (with some nice surreal edges there at the finale) and I found it a pleasant, intriguing bit of fantasy, quite romantic in its melodrama. And for the poster who hated this on both plane flights he saw it on, heads up: most films look bad on planes. *** from ****

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

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.