Don't waste your time.

Scoopy

Let me be fair. Old pro director William Friedkin did the best he could to turn this gobbledygook script into a movie. Some of the scenes are cleverly and cinematically presented. The photography is good, and the sets stylish. David Caruso is much more effective than he gets credit for, if a bit charisma-challenged, and Linda Fiorentino is one of the most interesting actresses working today.

Having thus damned with faint praise, let me further point out that there is nothing anyone could have done with this material. Orson Welles, Brando, and Larry Olivier in their primes could only have made a screwed-up movie out of this script.

It's hard to say which is worse, the cliched, unnatural dialogue ("I'm taking you off the case"); or the incoherent and illogical plot.

The author came up with an innovative solution to the age-old problem of the mystery genre. Even the best ones have several minutes of anti-climax when the audience has figured out the solution but the filmmakers haven't "revealed" it yet. Eszterhas avoided this pitfall creatively, by:

1. Having the explanation to the original murder be completely illogical. (If it was done by a guy, how did he get the other guy - his wife's lover - to voluntarily get in that S&M contraption). So did he offer a false confession for some reason?

2. Offering no explanation for some of the other murders. No potential murderer knew where Angie Everhart would be. How could they be there to run her over? Was Caruso in on the whole thing? He knew where she would be? Did Caruso chase himself by driving both cars? Obviously not, but what?

3. Confusing everyone with unrelated and irrelevant scenes with minor characters. Chazz Palmentieri has a meeting with some anonymous client. Why do we see this? Near the end, Fiorentino has a fairly long sex scene with an uncredited extra. Why do we see this?

If you really like Fiorentino, she is cool and sexy and as competent as ever.

I can't think of any other reason to watch this gibberish. Use life's precious minutes for something more rewarding and interesting. Take up alligator wrestling, listen to old Al Gore speeches, re-read Moby Dick. Anything to avoid this movie.

score /10

Scoopy 6 March 1999

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0365005/