MORTAL THOUGHTS
A film review by Frank Maloney
Copyright 1991 Frank Maloney
MORTAL THOUGHTS is a film by Alan Rudolph, starring Demi Moore, Glenne Headley, with Bruce Willis and Harvey Keitel, inter alios.
MORTAL THOUGHTS is a suspense film about the death of the Willis character, James, and told through a series of flashbacks framed by a police interrogation of Moore. The device works well and lets the script slip us a few interesting surprises.
Alan Rudolph is one of my favorite directors when he is working with his own scripts, such as CHOOSE ME or THE MODERNS. This film, unfortunately, is not one of these. It is a project he took on at the last minute and as such is one of his second-string efforts. To compensate for the general lack of Rudolphian quirkiness, the film features some glitzy photography and flashy editing. The overall effect is slightly fussy, I think. But still it's a watchable effort and one that is not totally unworthy of some qualified admiration.
For one thing, Demi Moore is slightly wonderful as the Italian-American working-class hairdresser in Bayonne, NJ. MORTAL THOUGHTS they may be, but the accent is strictly down-and-dirty Joisey. Moore gets to do some acting for a change. It turns out that she is not a totally discreditable actor, if fact I was impressed by her gritty, unpatronizing portrayal. It redeems her role in GHOST for me.
Glenne Headley, whose name I may or may not be spelling correctly, plays Cynthia, James' wife and the Moore character's boss and lifelong friend. She brings to her part a similar egalitarian flair for Bayonne and the added fillip of getting to portray a woman not that stable to start and who descends into a kind of madness by the end. It's a well modulated performance and one which I greatly enjoyed.
Willis gets to play James, the totally irredeemable druggie, abusive husband, layabout, and general scumbag. And Rudolph, to his enormous credit, got Willis to play this unattractive role without a glint of that horrible Willisian cuteness and charm. It maybe that Willis, too, is, under it all, an actor.
Harvey Keitel is the cop who conducts most of the interview and is wonderful as always. The other character actors were also attractive and effective in their roles. Indeed, this is a movie for acting buffs, more than story buffs, perhaps. I was interested but not compelled, alert but not alarmed, through the unfolding of the story.
I can recommend MORTAL THOUGHTS to anyone who can get to a cheap matinee. I hope Rudolph made enough off this movie so that he do one of his own next.
-- Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney
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