SEPARATE LIVES A Film Review Copyright Dragan Antulov 2000
Job of the policeman can be extremely stressful and, according to SEPARATE LIVES, 1995 thriller by David Madden, at least some members of that profession contemplate alternative ways to give their contribution to the welfare of the community. One of them is David Beckwith (played by James Belushi), police detective who left the force in order to pursue new career of psychiatrist. However, in order to receive the necessary degree he must attend classes held by Lauren Porter (played by Linda Hamilton) who takes notice of new student and asks his help in dealing with rather embarrassing personal problem. Professor Porter suffers from psychiatric problem of her own - multiple personality disorder as a result of childhood trauma. Every now and then mild-mannered intellectual Lauren transforms into Lena, promiscuous and aggressive woman who frequents L.A. club scene. Lauren fears that she has committed a murder during one of those episodes and she wants to hire Beckwith to watch over her. Beckwith agrees and he combines his professional skills of detective with knowledge of psychology in order to discover the real truth.
Despite not very original basic premise about split personality, plot of SEPARATE LIVES looks like a good material for at least passable thriller. Unfortunately, director David Madden was not exactly up to the task, same well as rather disinterested James Belushi. His partner Linda Hamilton didn't put much effort in her acting job either. Difficult dual role seems way over her abilities, and the erotic overtones, which could have saved this film, are missing. Actually, the entire film looks so anaemic that only couple of four-letter words indicate feature film instead of routine TV production. To make things even worse, presence of Vera Miles, intended as some kind of homage to PSYCHO, mother of all split personality thrillers, can only remind us of the fact that SEPARATE LIVES is light years away from quality cinema.
RATING: 2/10 (-)
Review written on October 2nd 2000
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax Fido: 2:381/100 E-mail: dragan.antulov@st.tel.hr E-mail: drax@purger.com E-mail: dragan.antulov@altbbs.fido.hr
Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in Croatian http://film.purger.com
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