© RCV Film Distribution BV
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Has what appears to be some kind of split personality, or
someone who is subject to dream states through which she
becomes someone else. It's hard to tell exactly what the
situation is and ever harder to care. She wanders haplessly
and helplessly as a character in a scenario from one scene and
one character to the next, and it's almost impossible to keep
track of anything at all. As Jesse Markham 1 (Anne Parillaud),
she is weak, vulnerable, and generally sort of willy-nilly namby-
pamby. When she's offered a cup of tea, she says things like,
"Are you sure it's tea?" When she answers the phone and no
one speaks, she says things like, "It was him. He didn't say
anything, but I'm sure it was him." She whispers with a deep
tone of voice and speaks with no intonation, which, one
assumes, is supposed to make her sexy, attractive, and
seductive (to the captive viewers in the cinema). As Jessie
Markham 2 (also Anne Parillaud), she is strong, cold-hearted
and capable of murder. In this second role, she whispers with a
deep tone of voice and speaks with no intonation, which, one
assumes, is supposed to make her sexy, attractive, and
seductive (to the captive viewers in the cinema). The one
distinguishing feature that separates the helpless victim from
the femme fatale is that the more dangerous lady always seems
to suffer from bad-wig days.
© RCV Film Distribution BV
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Opening with a dream (before turning into a nightmare), we see
Ms. Markham 2 follow a restaurant client into the men's room
where she promptly pumps three bullets into his chest before
leaving to make a phone call in which she reveals "It's done".
Shortly afterward Ms. Markham 1 travels to Jamaica with her
new husband Brian (William Baldwin) to begin a journey of
confusion. The charming, boyish Mr. Baldwin usually spends
his time walking adorably along the sand, showing how cute he
is, or staring at his new bride with smiling eyes before they kiss
for the thousandth time. (Dreamside, Mr. Baldwin has a replica
in the person of the hit woman Ms. Markham 2's target.) On
brief occasions, he reassures her of his manhood with such
statements as, "No one will hurt you. I'm here to prevent that."
During their honeymoon, she is having a difficult time forgetting
the rape she previously experienced outside a nightclub and
becomes convinced that her attacker is in pursuit. Nothing has
been able to alleviate her fears, not even frequent visits to her
psychiatrist. "Nonsense," says our hero as he takes off his shirt
again. Pause, move slowly, kiss, embrace (at least until the
next scene, where this order of events will probably be put into
place once again). She's so obsessive about her attacker, to
the exclusion of everything else, that, after the first half-hour,
one begins to wonder what he ever saw in her (i.e. the
husband, not the attacker, with whom one can more easily
sympathize). He, on the other hand, may be cute, but every
time he gets a chance, he brings up her money and what he
wants to do with it, which makes one wonder what she saw in
him. A match made in hell (which is what this tropical island
turns into as one sits watching this nonsense for two hours).
Chilean director Raul Ruiz appears, after making almost 100
films, to be going around the bend with his American debut;
writer Duane Poole seems to have helped him get there.
Graham Greene appears in the supporting roles of Conrad and
Mike. Lisanne Falk plays the supporting roles of Paula and
Laura. Dutch cinematographer Robby Muller is the only
positive thing to be said about this escapade, but, then again,
his work has always been top notch. The PR machine behind
the feature may try comparing this movie to "Vertigo," but
"Dizziness" would have been a closer title. If someone had
contemplated killing off the two main characters in the first
scene, a lot of wasted time and money would have been saved.
Couldn't somebody have come up with the idea of putting them
out of their misery (and ours) earlier?
© 1994-2006 The Green Hartnett
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