This truly bland exercise in studio suspense proves once and for all that you can put all the talent in the world together, but if the script doesn't work, you're wasting your time. It does have the advantage of Kevin Spacey chewing scenery four years before anyone knew who the devil he was (I'll pay five bucks for that any day), but even he seems somewhat uninspired.
Richard and Priscilla Parker (Kevin Kline and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) are yuppie musicians who live in suburbia somewhere in the South (Georgia? Virginia? North Carolina? It's never really made clear). They have a dull but fairly stable marriage and a musically skilled daughter who they pack off to boarding school mainly because they're too busy with their careers to deal with her. Into their dull lives come rockin' and rollin' Eddy Otis (Kevin Spacey) and his hot wife Kay (Rebecca Miller, looking like she took a Valium).
Eddy and Kay barge into Richard and Priscilla's lives with gusto. He's a "financial adviser" with an unhealthy appetite for risk-taking; she's a doormat with a beautiful singing voice. Eventually (in part because Eddy manages to eliminate their debt via an incredibly risky and immoral insurance scam), the couples become best friends. Richard begins to find himself attracted to Kay, and Eddy proposes that he and Richard do a one-night swap, claiming (ludicrously) that in the dead of night, with their wives half-asleep, no one will be the wiser. Richard, who is also something of a doormat without nearly the personality to stand up to the bullying, aggressive Eddy, agrees to the swap.
Long story short: Richard ends up framed for Kay's murder, Eddy swipes a willing Priscilla and their kid, and Richard has to prove his innocence to the police, an insurance investigator (Forest Whitaker), and most importantly his wife.
There is not a single likable character in the entire piece. That's what blows me away. Eddy is charismatic and he's supposed to be charming (and with Kevin Spacey in the role, he comes damn close). But he comes off as loud, obnoxious, and overbearing. I know guys like Eddy. I don't let them anywhere near my fiancée because I know they're going to hit on her, and I don't make them my friends because I know that they'll stick a knife in my back the moment it suits them. I suppose the fact that I recognize the guy is a testament to Spacey's acting, which is not surprising, but if we're supposed to believe that Richard fell for his nonsense, it's help if he were a little less of a jerk. Kevin Kline dozes his way through playing Richard as a spineless schmuck dealing with a midlife crisis which unfortunately just happens to involve Uzis and bloodied baseball bats. I've never seen him look so bored. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is a shrill, henpecking banshee as Priscilla. And Rebecca Miller is essentially playing a battered wife.
Y'know, I take it back. I don't just know guys like Eddy Otis, I think I actually know Eddy Otis. And his poor wife. I just hope they don't turn on me. If my life's going to be a movie, I'd much rather it be "Star Wars" or something.
Richard and Priscilla Parker (Kevin Kline and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) are yuppie musicians who live in suburbia somewhere in the South (Georgia? Virginia? North Carolina? It's never really made clear). They have a dull but fairly stable marriage and a musically skilled daughter who they pack off to boarding school mainly because they're too busy with their careers to deal with her. Into their dull lives come rockin' and rollin' Eddy Otis (Kevin Spacey) and his hot wife Kay (Rebecca Miller, looking like she took a Valium).
Eddy and Kay barge into Richard and Priscilla's lives with gusto. He's a "financial adviser" with an unhealthy appetite for risk-taking; she's a doormat with a beautiful singing voice. Eventually (in part because Eddy manages to eliminate their debt via an incredibly risky and immoral insurance scam), the couples become best friends. Richard begins to find himself attracted to Kay, and Eddy proposes that he and Richard do a one-night swap, claiming (ludicrously) that in the dead of night, with their wives half-asleep, no one will be the wiser. Richard, who is also something of a doormat without nearly the personality to stand up to the bullying, aggressive Eddy, agrees to the swap.
Long story short: Richard ends up framed for Kay's murder, Eddy swipes a willing Priscilla and their kid, and Richard has to prove his innocence to the police, an insurance investigator (Forest Whitaker), and most importantly his wife.
There is not a single likable character in the entire piece. That's what blows me away. Eddy is charismatic and he's supposed to be charming (and with Kevin Spacey in the role, he comes damn close). But he comes off as loud, obnoxious, and overbearing. I know guys like Eddy. I don't let them anywhere near my fiancée because I know they're going to hit on her, and I don't make them my friends because I know that they'll stick a knife in my back the moment it suits them. I suppose the fact that I recognize the guy is a testament to Spacey's acting, which is not surprising, but if we're supposed to believe that Richard fell for his nonsense, it's help if he were a little less of a jerk. Kevin Kline dozes his way through playing Richard as a spineless schmuck dealing with a midlife crisis which unfortunately just happens to involve Uzis and bloodied baseball bats. I've never seen him look so bored. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is a shrill, henpecking banshee as Priscilla. And Rebecca Miller is essentially playing a battered wife.
Y'know, I take it back. I don't just know guys like Eddy Otis, I think I actually know Eddy Otis. And his poor wife. I just hope they don't turn on me. If my life's going to be a movie, I'd much rather it be "Star Wars" or something.