A man is appointed to a position of responsibility at a mental asylum and is accompianied by his wife and child. Stella, his wife (played by Natasha Richardson) is drawn over time to one of the inmates and begins an affair with him that is noticed by one of the asylum’s staff doctors (Ian McKellan). The four of them are drawn together in a unique relationship.
The Poster
The more Natasha Richardson the better, in my opinion.
While the out-of-focus bars do accurately represent the movie’s location as a prison of sorts I think the overall look of the poster veers too closely to “erotic thriller” than “character drama”. I don’t know, it just looks like a leftover one-sheet design for a Sharon Stone movie from the mid-90’s. Not my favorite.
Not bad but definitely a bit breathles for my taste. Awkwardly paced a bit and the presence of Ian McKellan seems to slow things down to a crawl. I don’t know…
Not bad for a mid-tier release. Unfortunately all the videos are available exclusively in Quicktime. How many times do I have to say that while I love QT has much as the next guy putting these clips in one format only makes no sense? Oh well.
There’s a pretty good Synopsis that again plays up the psycho-sexual angle of the plot. Cast has bios and filmos of the cast that are fairly in-depth and Crew does the same for those behind the camera. Video has seven clips from the movie that, because I don’t have Quicktime on this computer I can’t view but which I’m sure are cool. Finally News/Notes/Reviews contains some qlurbs (quotes/blurbs) and excerpted reviews praising the movie.
Overall
So is the erotic thriller tone the campaign takes accurate of the movie or merely a marketing play under the “sex sells” theory? I’m not sure but the movie does look interesting. I tend to think it’s just a marketing ploy aimed at attracting a larger audience to a non-mainstream movie, but that’s just a guess. Natasha Richardson is hot so that alone might make this worth checking out. I
Chris Thilk 