Confessions criminelles

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.

This one's a bit of a head-scratcher. - it's a example of that odd 1980's era of faux film-noir that tries to emulate classic 1040's-50's crime flicks - tough guy cops, tough-guy gals, B&W tonality, snappy cop repartee over gruesome butchered bodies, etc - but just doesn't have the same authenticity - somehow 80's stuff too self-aware and facilely stylistic.

Leslie Ann Warren as the female-at-risk lead is a questionable casting choice - Leslie's always a trooper as an actor and does her part well - but she's just not the tough gal "type" - but there are a lot of other fun early career cameo appearances - Chris Noth (Sex & the City), Harvey Fierstein as a recurrent grim comic relief as a street guy, etc.

The thing is supposed to be occurring in 1980's gritty grimy version of the Big Apple (i.e., pre-Disney-ized Times Square), but apparently was actually filmed in Toronto, so, just like the classic film-noir wanna-be-ism, the whole ambience of the settings just don't quite ring true.

Nonetheless, it's not a waste of time to watch; as mentioned, Leslie Ann Warren is quite OK, just not the type for the film noir genre - I mean, let's face it, the gal-at-risk has gotta be a platinum blonde hooving at least 5 packs a day and she's not & doesn't - and the basic story line does have some clever takes on updating the 40/50's crime noirs. Additionally most all of the male actors are good in their standard crime noir roles - cop investigator, wise-guy DA, chronically annoyed supervisory lieutenant, sleazy-voiced bad guy perp leaving deranged phone messages - I think because they're not trying too hard and just rolling with the irony.

So, if you just want something lite - crime noir "lite", that is - this wouldn't be the worst thing to spend an hour and a half watching. :-)

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

A woman begins a dangerous game with a serial killer looking to give her hotline an Apology after each murder he commits.

Lily is an artist who has set up a hotline called "Apology" that people can call in to say sorry for any wrong doing they have been in their lives either in the present or past. It's for an art exhibit she's creating where she plans to air the apologies in an artsy way. Meanwhile, someone is murdering gay men all over the city in gruesome ways. That same person ends up calling in and admits to raping his cousin when he was young, and eventually apologies on the hotline for committing one of the henious murders in the city.

Despite initial feelings that she is putting the integrity of the anonymous call-in hotline in jeopardy, Lily eventually works with the police regarding call from the serial killer. She meets Detective Hungate who is on this case and has instant chemistry with him. As the calls continue to come in, and the killer getting closer and closer to making contact with Lily, Hungate will have to catch him before it's too late. All is revealed in a well done conclusion.

Apology is a fun little horror thriller done on HBO in the mid-80s. The idea of the apology hotline was an interesting to insert into a horror movie storyline, and the filmmakers did a good job making the two fit well. We also get good character development with Lily and Hungate, plus the two actors have a great little chemistry. Lesley Ann Warren is a fun to watch horror heroine and Peter Weller plays off of that very well.

I highly recommend Apology if you have the chance to watch it. I don't believe this is on DVD, I was lucky years back to catch it on VHS in a video store that was going out of business. It has a great and creative story, good murder mystery, actors at the top of their game, plus a VERY catchy title song by Bill Champlin.

8/10