RAISING CAIN
A film review by Craig Good
Copyright 1992 Craig Good
Brian, Brian, Brian.
Brian.
Brian, WAKE UP!
When Brian DePalma finished making RAISING CAIN he must have sat bolt upright in a cold sweat and thought it was a nightmare. He used that conceit over and over and over and over again in the film until the audience wished *they* could wake up and find that it was all a dream. No such luck.
It's as though DePalma took bits and pieces of every film he's ever made, good and bad, and tossed them into some kind of giant celluloid blender. RAISING CAIN is so awash in red herrings, dream sequences, and magic pop-up characters that it's no wonder it took three editors to cut it. At least Brian isn't peppering his films with just Hitchcock references: now he's making references to his own films.
I guess John Lithgow just couldn't turn down the opportunity to play himself, his evil twin, his own father, a woman and a small boy. Would you? His performance is all that saves the few good sequences in the movie. One of the two times that the audience at our screening sat quietly at attention can be attributed to his acting. And Lolita Davidovich's face is what saves the best close-ups.
But this is the movie that puts the "osterous" in "preposterous." While on the one hand DePalma's script and direction try to keep the audience "guessing" and "off-balance" about parts of the story, the rest is incessantly explained by characters whose sole reason for existence seems to be spouting exposition during marathon-length SteadiCam shots. The result is an audience that is "confused" and "annoyed." For a while I tried to let it work as a comedy. Lithgow provides some good laughs, and so does DePalma, but I think only one of them did it on purpose.
I'm an optimist. So I say that some day, some how, Brian is going to come to his senses. He's going to realize that, by golly, he's made more good movies than many directors ever do in their careers, just not lately. He's going to get rid of whatever evil twin it is that made RAISING CAIN, and rediscover the mature, skilled film maker responsible for THE UNTOUCHABLES. Until then, I can only shout...
"Snap out of it Brian!"
--Craig
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