Diabolique A Film Review By Michael Redman Copyright 1996 By Michael Redman
*1/2 (out of ****)
The word to describe Sharon Stone is "wonder". Not that she _is_ a wonder, but rather that I wonder how she can be so inconsistent. She has a dynamic screen presence in "Basic Instinct", turns in a surprisingly fine acting job in "Casino", but possesses neither of those here.
Stone teams up with private school headmaster's wife Isabelle Adjani to kill Adjani's thoroughly unlikable husband (Chazz Palminteri). In a comedy of errors and unexpected twists straight out of Hitchcock (as in `homage to' [read "steal from"]), it turns out that someone saw them or he's not dead or maybe...
Kathy Bates turns in a credible, if unspectacular, performance as an investigative police detective. Her character is a bit dull but realistic, although her actions at the end are puzzling. Adjani is more than satisfactory as the timid beaten spouse driven to desperation.
It's Stone that is a disappointment among the actors. How can she be the epitome of a femme fatale in previous films and come off as a blank in this one? Costumed in skin-tight clothes and looking down her nose at everyone, she is someone you would want to avoid because she is boring, not enticingly dangerous. Even the threat (or promise?) of a lesbian relationship between the conspirators is only half played out.
On the positive side, there are enough unexpected plot developments to keep your interest alive. That is if you can put up with Stone's cardboard cut-out character and scenes directly lifted from Hitch's movies.
[This appeared in the 3/28/96 "Bloomington Voice", Bloomington, Indiana. Michael Redman can be contacted at redman@bvoice.com]
-- mailto:redman@bvoice.com This week's film review at http://www.bvoice.com/ Film reviews archive at http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Michael%20Redman
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