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 [Larger view] | Love Kills
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Average user rating:  | |
| loved by the man hired to kill her | |
| This TVM directed by Brian Grant has some intriguing elements which keep one guessing before the plot implausibilities bury any sense of reality. As the wife of a criminal psychologist and author who she believes is trying to kill her, Virginia Madsen is an actress who can play paranoid victim without looking silly, but even she is given one too many cries of "No", and suffers under the weight of 4 potential assassins, not to mention a mean looking dog. Grant is possibly aware of the weakness of the script and plays some scenes for laughs, one expectation of Madsen being pursued is given a comic payoff, and it is only the combination of 2 cliches in another scene that neutralises them - the confession as plot update to a friend interrupted by a secretary not holding telephone calls as requested. He inserts a late dream sequence which presents like a trailer, but also provides some inspired touches - a choreographed foreplay set to latin music on the soundtrack, Madsen in closeup facing an oncoming vehicle, and a neon-lit diametrically crossing staircase. For a time this part recalls Madsen's role as the investigator in Candyman, where her anxieties were unbelieved and considered delusional, however Grant doesn't pass on the opportunity to admire her beauty. Madsen recalls Barbara Stanwyck, and not just because she resembles her, since both have the ability to play intelligent women in suspicious circumstances. As the hired killer who alerts Madsen to the danger she is in, Lenny von Dohlen's boyish earnestness, daytime drama throaty voice and lack of skill is passable since he is meant to be a psychopath. If only a similar excuse could be made for Jim Metzler as Madsen's author husband. As Madsen's friend, Erich Anderson continues his SNAG from thirtysomething, and in a small part at Anderson's gay assistant, Frank Magner is funny with his few lines. |
