User Reviews

Do not waste 82 minutes of your life! I have spent the last few years watching a selection of the worst films I can find. Many times this is because the acting can be hilariously bad, the script laughable or for many other reasons.

In those years I have never regretted watching a movie more than seeing "My Wife and My Dead Wife".

The film is only 82 minutes long but we felt we had sat there for an eternity.

To begin with we have an actor who is neither photogenic or any good as the lead. Guy Balotine delivers his lines like they have absolutely no meaning (I'll give him the benefit of the doubt - he possibly read the script to the end and lost the will to live - no pun intended).

Graham (Guy) marriage is breaking down apparently, the signs are completely unclear to see in the way that he and his wife inter-react. In fact there seems to be nothing too wrong with his marriage.

However the move into the new house and the discovery of a music box whose distorted tune would have every dog howling in the neighbourhood leads him to find pictures of his "Dead Wife" and start having affair with the same.

This involves him sneaking home, missing work and those around him thinking that his drinking problem has re-surfaced (This in itself pushed into the script in a party scene).

From about 10 minutes in I wished Graham was dead and with his dead wife continually telling him he needs to take the next step you have an idea where this is going.

Direction is shoddy at best with some awful cuts leading to black screen that make you wonder exactly what was intended. Or possibly not even caring. To say that the best shot of the film was when his "living - although also wooden" wife puts out a candle is no lie. WE commented on this whilst we were watching it.

The music as well. Possibly limited by budget we are given original music that builds the tension with a flamenco guitar and a viola (which I hope was being played by a talented 8 or 9 year old rather than some professional musician).

The original music scored, in fact, isn't bad. It is just not for this movie.

Another sign of this films quality was the cheer (of relief) as the titles finally ran.

I find nothing in this film to recommend it to anyone. It is slow, dull, badly acted and possibly the least enjoyable time I have spent watching celluloid.

Featuring a cast of rather listless actors plodding along through what is after all a rather simple story, "My Wife and My Dead Wife" left me feeling this could have been better covered in a half hour episode of the Twilight Zone.

It's shot well enough, and most of the actors aren't that bad (in an amateur dramatic society sort of way) - no, my main gripe goes to the dialogue/script writer (if there was one) and the people who "wrote" the soundtrack - especially the apparently random notes generated by the musical box which gave me a headache, not to mention the Spanish guitar strumming away inappropriately during some scenes, (giving some attempted ethereal moments a spaghetti western flavour).

This movie is as scary or supernatural as an episode of the Simpsons' Tree House of Horror series - in fact I quote (as Homer aka "Graham", the lead man goes up to the attic) "Now, where the hell is that light... doh!" as he bashes his head I assume - and while we're on dialogue, who has ever really said "What a day" (takes a swig of beer), "I'm beat!" **SPOILER AHEAD** This, in short, is a story of a lawyer called Graham, with none too apparent marital problems, who, when moving to a new ACME Spooky House, finds a disappointingly cheap looking musical box which, apart from giving every audience member a migraine, summons a badly acted ghost, who, apart from being generous in the nookie department, continually tells him to TAKE THE NEXT STEP SO THAT THEY CAN BE TOGETHER FOREVER.

This dead wife of the title looks not so much ghostly, as someone who is either a bit "special" or a hippy – or both. She's sort of distracted and blank, and oh so wooden. She does seem to nag him quite a bit about taking the NEXT STEP, (she's dead, he's not – what could she mean?) while his real wife actually seems quite nice and supportive to him (just don't forget to wash the dishes!) He starts skiving off work to, er, "liaise" with the dead missus, but also continues to have a rare old time with the live wife, and this seems to carry on, and on, and on, in real time, for about a month, with not much more plot development, until he eventually quaffs a nice big bottle of vodka.................. AND TAKES THE NEXT............ oh, that would be telling I suppose.

Oh and a special mention to the lead man Guy Balotine, whose portrayals of "Graham" sober and happy, "Graham" drunk and angry, "Graham" after presumably a bucket of tequila in some bar, and "Graham" getting sacked ...... are all exactly the same.

Finally a genuinely spooky moment – I must have dozed off after another scene of Graham skiving off from work, only to wake up with a start, at the same time as Graham on screen wakes up with a start! We looked at each other and I could swear he was thinking what I was thinking…."What the hell am I doing here?"

This film provided an insightful, compelling examination of the psychological abyss that exists in the space between what we have and what we desire.

The movie begins with a husband and wife (Graham and Andrea) moving into an old house. There are signs early on that all is not well with their relationship, but nothing earthshaking...Just a subtle disconnect, missing passion. This portrayal proves to be a strength of "My Wife and My Dead Wife" throughout the film...It is the little absences that can tear most destructively at the fabric of a relationship, and this is something which the movie captures with great skill.

Into the void in Graham's life steps the Dead Wife. We first see her when Graham discovers pictures of her in an old music box. She seems to bring to Graham all those things that he longs for, but lacks. The Dead Wife, for Graham, is like a drug. She offers an escape from his meaningless existence, but at the ultimate price. Interestingly, the film leaves the question open as to whether or not the Dead Wife even exists. But one thing is clear, as Graham becomes more involved with the Dead Wife his ability to function in the outside world becomes increasingly impaired.

Also, as Graham becomes closer to the Dead Wife, she digs her hooks in deeper and it becomes increasingly evident that she may not be a benign presence after all.

I found the movie increasingly gripping as Graham spiraled downward at an ever quickening pace. And although I anticipated the ending (which was impressively shot)it still felt like a blow. This was primarily because over the course of the film I genuinely cared about the characters. I also appreciated the fact that the movie did not shy away from a dark ending and leaves it to the audience to decide whether or not the Dead Wife was real or just a creation of Graham's fevered mind.

This was a well done, thought provoking film.