Linda Fiorentino has played a couple of self-absorbed seductresses, in "Jade" and "The Last Seduction", and she was extremely good, especially in that last, semi-comic role as an exploitative nympho. Here, she's a scientist investigating the transfer of memory by means of fluid extraction from the brain one the donor into the arm of the receiver. She's pretty good here too, and it was a surprise because she'd seemed made for the more treacherous roles. No kidding. As the principled doctor here, she's sometimes frightened and often wide-eyed with bemusement. Not exactly Alice in Wonderland but not Selene either.
Ray Liotta is the medical examiner whose pregnant wife has been murdered and he begins to self administer the serum in order to recapture the experiences of the murder victim. It leads to more than he bargained for. It puts all sorts of unbearable strain on his heart and he undergoes all the emotions associated with being murdered. (Evidently, your life flashes before your eyes as you expire.) It's an interesting premise. I wonder if it wasn't inspired by a controversial experiment done in the late 50s or early 60s (I'm too lazy to look it up) involving flatworms and a Y-shaped maze. The experimenters trained a flatworm to find food at the end of the maze, then they chopped up the flatworm and fed it to a second flatworm in a kind of Planaria pate, and the second flatworm learned the maze more quickly than controls.
The premise is full of promise but the story is knee-capped by its obvious desire to become just another action thriller with blood splattering all over the walls and pokers bashing in heads and Ray Liota taking the drug and writhing all over the floor like Jeykll turning into Hyde.
The story is sometimes confusing too because, at times, Liota's own flashbacks are interpolated into the flashbacks of a couple of murder victims, so it's hard to tell whose memory (or insight) we're witnessing. Too bad it's so sloppily done.
It ends with a monumental explosion and a house afire and Liota trying to rescue an unconscious body and a tape recording at the same time, while Fiorentino and a gorgeous Kim Cattral watch helplessly. At the final fade, Liota gets to spend an indefinite amount of time playing with his two cute little girls in such sunshine as the Seattle climate allows.
Ray Liotta is the medical examiner whose pregnant wife has been murdered and he begins to self administer the serum in order to recapture the experiences of the murder victim. It leads to more than he bargained for. It puts all sorts of unbearable strain on his heart and he undergoes all the emotions associated with being murdered. (Evidently, your life flashes before your eyes as you expire.) It's an interesting premise. I wonder if it wasn't inspired by a controversial experiment done in the late 50s or early 60s (I'm too lazy to look it up) involving flatworms and a Y-shaped maze. The experimenters trained a flatworm to find food at the end of the maze, then they chopped up the flatworm and fed it to a second flatworm in a kind of Planaria pate, and the second flatworm learned the maze more quickly than controls.
The premise is full of promise but the story is knee-capped by its obvious desire to become just another action thriller with blood splattering all over the walls and pokers bashing in heads and Ray Liota taking the drug and writhing all over the floor like Jeykll turning into Hyde.
The story is sometimes confusing too because, at times, Liota's own flashbacks are interpolated into the flashbacks of a couple of murder victims, so it's hard to tell whose memory (or insight) we're witnessing. Too bad it's so sloppily done.
It ends with a monumental explosion and a house afire and Liota trying to rescue an unconscious body and a tape recording at the same time, while Fiorentino and a gorgeous Kim Cattral watch helplessly. At the final fade, Liota gets to spend an indefinite amount of time playing with his two cute little girls in such sunshine as the Seattle climate allows.