Final Analysis

Part of the reason why I’m embarking on this sexy thriller adventure is because I wanted to check out some pictures that I hadn’t seen before.  And whenever you do that there's always a risk that the movie you’re watching doesn’t quite fit what you’re looking for.  I saw De Palma’s Body Double and it turned out to not really be a sexy thriller but more of a regular thriller so I decided not to talk about it.  The next film I checked out was Final Analysis and I wouldn’t classify it as an all out sexy thriller either but it definitely fits into that category better than Body Double so I’ll go with it.

Isaac Barr (Richard Gere (Primal Fear, Dr T and the Women)) is a psychiatrist that’s treating Diana (Uma Thurman (Kill Bills)).  Diana recommends that he speak with her sister, Heather (Kim Basinger (The Real McCoy, Batman (1989))) to get a better idea of their family history.  Despite Heather being married Isaac falls in love with her and they continue to see each other.  But Heather’s husband Jimmy ain’t no pushover, he’s Eric fucking Roberts (Best of the Best 2).  Trust me when I tell you that I’m not spoiling anything by saying that Roberts gets murdered and that leads to all the twists and turns in the plot.  Even though the plot I just described sounds like a Double Indemnity remake it’s not.  But there are some nods to it.

I’m not a Richard Gere fan really but I don’t mind him.  I’m secure enough to admit that he’s a handsome man and I get why he plays irresistible dudes in many of his films.  I like his laid back style of acting because I feel like I’m in good hands unlike William Hurt’s relaxed style that makes him look like he’s bumbling his way through a movie.  Gere has enough confidence that he pulls off roles like doctors or lawyers real well.  I could see him being either in real life because he’s compassionate but he can also get down to business when it’s necessary.  And for this movie Gere puts on a good show that makes you believe that he really cares about what’s going on.  He just seems like a real nice guy.  Now I haven’t seen a lot of Richard Gere films but I don’t think he’s ever played a bad guy or even just an asshole and this is no exception.  But if you guys know of one let me know ‘cause I think it would be interesting to see that side of him. 

As for the female lead, for most of this picture it’s classic Kim Basinger.  There’s a lot of whisper talking, trembling lips, eye shaking, uneasy confidence and wavy long blonde hair.  The slight southern accent is the only thing that’s not present.  As the film went her character got more interesting and her acting got better.  She has to deal with a lot of shit throughout the movie and Basinger pulls off this role nicely.  Heather is a complex character with a fucked up past, a fucked up present, an abusive husband, a fucked up sister and on top of all of this she has to deal with being on trial for murder.  Basinger makes it look easy to store up all of these emotions and trigger the right response to the right situation.  Again like with Richard Gere I haven’t seen a lot of Kim Basinger films but so far this is best I’ve seen her.  At the end she pulls off a pretty badass performance which has to be rare for her.     

Uma Thurman is also pretty good in this as the sister with seemingly just as many emotional and mental problems.  She pops up every once in a while to remind you that she’s still there and to help advance the plot.

But far and away the best thing about this movie is Eric Roberts as Jimmy.  When he brings his head up from underneath a towel that he’s drying his hair with it’s like, “Eric Roberts?  You’re in this?  Holy shit it’s great to see you man how is everything?”  It’s pretty weird because he plays just about the same exact role as he would in The Specialist a few years later.  He’s a Greek gangster that is very controlling of Heather.  He wants to know where she is at all times and abuses her sexually.  There’s a scene where he forces her to strip and give him a blowjob.  Well, we don’t actually see the blowjob part but it’s implied.  I know that we’re not supposed to like Jimmy but he’s so much fun to watch that I found myself rooting for him and got excited whenever he was in a scene.  Unfortunately just like in The Specialist he gets bumped off like half way through the picture.  But not before he has another scene that’s identical to one in The Specialist.  It’s where Isaac stares at Heather as he’s walking by and Jimmy goes after him to tell him not to do that.  In both scenes Roberts makes a gay joke and a threat to take out the guy’s eyes.  Gere plays it the same way that Stallone does and acts all nonchalant about the whole thing.  Both end with them just having a few words and no actual fighting.  But it’s a great scene with each guy trying to out-tough the other.

Eric Roberts notwithstanding, the filmmakers were going for a Hitchcock type thriller with the score, plot twists and unlikely protagonist.  But this is way more complicated than anything Hitchcock ever did, even Vertigo.  It’s not a terrible movie but at the same time I think having a ton of plot twists is kinda dumb.  There’s only so much out-smarting that I can take in one film.  And in the beginning it felt like I was watching two different movies simultaneously because the Richard Gere part with him falling in love with this woman that he just met had a totally different feel than the Eric Roberts treating his wife like shit part.  Roberts changes the dynamic so much whenever it cuts back to him that I wanted to abandon the Richard Gere story line and just follow whatever Roberts was doing.  And I enjoyed being played with like that because I thought this movie was going to be about one thing and then it turned into something else.  With that said (and I know this is going to sound contradictory) the plot was fairly predictable.  Once I got my footing and realized who was who and that Richard Gere and Eric Roberts were in the same movie together then it’s not hard to imagine where things are going to go.  It’s pretty meaty on the thriller but lean on the sexy so as far as taking this from a sexy thriller point of view it’s terribly lopsided.  But if you’re into poorly done neo-Hitchcock/noir-that’s-still-pretty-fun-to-watch you could certainly do worse.  Roberts will suck you in for the first half and then by the time he’s gone you’ll want to know how it ends so they lay a good trap for you.

One last thing, I noticed that this was produced by Paul Junger Witt and he produced hit TV shows like The Partidge Family, The Golden Girls and Blossom.  He also went on to produce Three Kings and Insomnia.  Pretty different kinds of material if you ask me.

Sex Scenes: One.  Gere and Basinger get it on and I love the way that they go into the scene.  They both agree that they can’t see each other, they say goodbye and then it immediately cuts to them having sex.  Nice editing work.

After Sex Scenes: One and it goes along with the only sex scene.

Strange Cameos: Does Eric Roberts count?  I fucking love him.  There’s one scene where he and Kim Basinger are having dinner in a fancy restaurant and the whole thing is shot almost entirely in close-ups so it’s a little uncomfortable to watch.  Towards the end shit suddenly gets outta hand.  Afterwards Roberts says to Basinger, “if you ever embarrass me like that again” *pause* “I’ll fucking kill you”.

Motherfuckin’ Keith David (They Live, The Thing (1982)) plays a detective.  Unfortunately he’s not in it a whole lot but his role is pretty important and he’s badass as always.  Jesus is he an intimidating man.