Cast
Marie/ Marty (Demi Moore)
William (Stellan Skarsgard)
Aaron (William Fichtner)
Jessie (Sinead Cusack)
Directed by Alan Berliner Written by Ron Bass and David Field
Rated PG-13 for sexuality Running Time: 105 minutes Distributed
by Paramount Classics
Passion
of Mind is a film that tries to be a unique and contrasting
film, but ends up being pretty dull. The film's story is about
a woman (Moore) who is leading a double life in her dreams.
Marie is a beautiful but lonely American widow living with
two daughters in the south of France. When Marie is asleep,
Marty is awake in New York. Marty is a glamorous career woman,
who wants a life of perfection. But is she really Marty or
is she Marie. Reluctant to reveal their increasing confusion
to the men in each of their lives, Marie and Marty must quickly
discover which life is real and which is a dream, before they
both lose everything.
Passion
of Mind is a psychological romance that reminded me of the
Gweyneth Paltrow film, Sliding Doors. However, Sliding Doors
is a smarter and more entertaining film.
Alain
Berliner's direction in the film isn't anything special, but
substantial. His jumping back and forth from France to New
York is presentable, not confusing. Also, Berliner's love
scenes are filled with heart and passion. However, I didn't
like Berliner's approach to the climatic scene of the film.
He creates the scene darker and eerie than it should be. In
my opinion, the climax of this film was suppose to be a revelation
or discovery, Berliner approaches it as if he was creating
something in The Shining.
The
script was a collaboration of two writers, Ron Bass and David
Field. The storyline is something different, but I couldn't
get into it. The characters and relationships in the script
were established, but there was also a lot irrelavance and
bad dialogue. The writers try to bring in symbolism as well.
Examples are Central Park in New York and Marty's sculpture
of Marie. For the most part, the symbolism is just there with
a flaky line of reference attached to it.
Stellan
Skarsgard is a very flexible actor. His previous credits include
roles in Good Will Hunting, Amistad, Ronin and Deep Blue Sea.
He delivers an "almost too nice" and patient performance as
Marie's love interest, William. I enjoy watching Skarsgard
work; he has a wide-open future ahead of him. William Fichtner
turns in an admirable performance, as Marty's love interest,
Aaron. Fichtner has had a varietive career with roles in Heat,
Go and Armageddon. He is a two-dimensional actor that will
not have problems finding better scripts to work with. Passion
of Mind is the first film Demi Moore has been in since G.I.
Jane. She doesn't deliver the best performance of her career,
but she does a nice job with the two lead roles (Marie/Marty)
of the film. In the past, Moore has delivered performances
that I routed for, like in Ghost, Indecent Proposal, The Seventh
Sign and The Juror. However, sometimes she has been pretty
terrible, like in The Butcher's Wife and Striptease. I wish
all the best to her and I hope she gets her career back on
track. Honestly, Passion of Mind is a good choice for a comeback
attempt, because the spotlight isn't on this film. What I
mean is that Passion of Mind isn't going to be release in
many theaters and it isn’t a blockbuster. So, Moore made a
wise decision of coming back with a role in a small, independent
picture.
Passion
of Mind is a film that could have been really interesting.
It had a quirk in the story that might have worked better
if different intentions and choices were made in the script.
Report
Card Grade: C-
Beastman's
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