For what seems like it's going to be a great modern film noir thriller ends up being a perplexing mess thar started off on the right foot then all of a sudden tripped and lost everything in the East River. Tommy Lee Jones, as a down on his luck private investigator is asked to confront a mysterious beauty (Virginia's Madsen), then tell her to leave her ex-husband alone. She has no idea of what he's talking about (or so she proclaims), and it seems like it's moving down one direction when it finally turns into a dead end.
Sad that this promising mystery ended up falling short as it goes from thriller to possible ghost story and then meakly settles into mystery where I never found that anything was being resolved. Madsen definitely has "it", a combination of Kathleen Turner, Sharon Stone and Kim Basinger, but I could never fully determine what the purpose of the initial case was, and never did which made me loose interest. I didn't think that Jones and Madsen had much chemistry either. This really could have been something very intelligent and interesting, but they were trying too hard in making something seem much more intelligent than it is, and the result is complete pretentiousness. Also, after this, I never want to hear the beautiful Rodgers and Hart classic "Where or When" ever again.
Sad that this promising mystery ended up falling short as it goes from thriller to possible ghost story and then meakly settles into mystery where I never found that anything was being resolved. Madsen definitely has "it", a combination of Kathleen Turner, Sharon Stone and Kim Basinger, but I could never fully determine what the purpose of the initial case was, and never did which made me loose interest. I didn't think that Jones and Madsen had much chemistry either. This really could have been something very intelligent and interesting, but they were trying too hard in making something seem much more intelligent than it is, and the result is complete pretentiousness. Also, after this, I never want to hear the beautiful Rodgers and Hart classic "Where or When" ever again.