After Bonfire of the Vanities Brian De Palma battened down the hatches with a lower budgered thriller that made some money - as he often did through his career. He goes back to his old bag of tricks - point of view shots, tracking shots, multiple personalities, Hitchcock references (there's even a car sinking into the water), high camp.
John Lithgow has a high old time in a wig playing multiple personalities. It's a lovely big fat part of him after years of supporting in De Palma movies. Lolita Davidovitch isn't very good as the female lead - she seems not that interested in what's going on. I liked her in movies like Blaze maybe she struggled under De Palma. Though some female stars have given great performances in his films - Melanie Griffith, Nancy Allen (either who would've been better). Nice to see Steve Bauer back in a showy feature role as Lolita's lover.
The film has a black heart, like so many De Palma films. It's about a killer who murders mothers and abducts their children. De Palma doesn't kill a child on screen but what happened to all the others.
I prefered the movie at the half way mark when the police figured it out and the movie comes from their point of view. I think I just preferred it to not have to identity with Lithgow. I know some film buffs love to be challenged that way. Good for them.
The cut of this I saw was the release cut not the director's cut a fan did which De Palma endorsed. That ripped off the structure of Psycho, as had Dressed to Kill and Sisters.
I didn't like the first half of this but did the second. Appreciated seeing people like Mel Harris (in an admittedly poor part - exposition recipient), Gregg Hery as a cop, Frances Sterhaden, and Andrea from Beverly Hills 90210 as trailer trash.
Some of it is so OTT you're likely to laugh. Deliberate or incompetence?
Great last shot.
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