The extremely intense Jennifer Jason Leigh really could have been up there today with the top stars who came out of the 1980's, but for the most part, she stayed out of the mainstream, choosing roles and stories of a more avant garde nature, and this thriller is no exception. It is a film that will not be for all tastes, but Leigh's performance and the details that she puts into her characterization are absolutely brilliant. She's a troubled young woman who inherits her uncle's old nightclub, and what she goes through upon moving into the apartment above it would destroy a strong person let alone one with her inhibitions and fears.
While there are horror movies with symbolism, I've never seen one so filled with them as this it. Whether it be the red walls, a single apple in the refrigerator, the dead uncle's Hawaiian shirts or a weird video room, everything is there to make you think. Leigh goes through the experience of a horrible rape, made even worse by her dislike of being touched, let alone in a sexual way. A rather aggressive "detective" (Peter Coyote) takes on her case and gradually gains her trust, indicating that her uncle was not the person she believed him to be. Denise Dumont is very good as Leigh's counselor, while Brenda Vaccaro adds mystery and insight as her mother. But things and people are not whom they seem to be.
This is not a film that I could imagine watching again, the perversions vastly disturbing, so this one shot deal had me mesmerized from start to finish. It is a film of many different moods, themes and attitudes. Some of what is going on is a mixture of subconscious and nightmares, horrors without a monster or mad man to go along with them. If this had one message to deliver to me, that is to always look clearly at what I am seeking, because sometimes, the darkest nightmares come from a real place in our minds that we refuse to visit. At any rate, it brought back my forgotten respect for Jennifer Jason Leigh, an actress of integrity who went one step beyond the traditional and created a character who was emotionally over powering.
While there are horror movies with symbolism, I've never seen one so filled with them as this it. Whether it be the red walls, a single apple in the refrigerator, the dead uncle's Hawaiian shirts or a weird video room, everything is there to make you think. Leigh goes through the experience of a horrible rape, made even worse by her dislike of being touched, let alone in a sexual way. A rather aggressive "detective" (Peter Coyote) takes on her case and gradually gains her trust, indicating that her uncle was not the person she believed him to be. Denise Dumont is very good as Leigh's counselor, while Brenda Vaccaro adds mystery and insight as her mother. But things and people are not whom they seem to be.
This is not a film that I could imagine watching again, the perversions vastly disturbing, so this one shot deal had me mesmerized from start to finish. It is a film of many different moods, themes and attitudes. Some of what is going on is a mixture of subconscious and nightmares, horrors without a monster or mad man to go along with them. If this had one message to deliver to me, that is to always look clearly at what I am seeking, because sometimes, the darkest nightmares come from a real place in our minds that we refuse to visit. At any rate, it brought back my forgotten respect for Jennifer Jason Leigh, an actress of integrity who went one step beyond the traditional and created a character who was emotionally over powering.