Passion of Mind (2000)

To me, this movie is perfection.

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Passion Of Mind is a little seen fantasy romance tale that stars Demi Moore as a woman named Marie, essentially living double lives in a way. She lives and works in New York, and is as ordinary as any other woman in the world, but when she goes to sleep she wakes up to another life in the French countryside, with another job and children who aren't in New York. She lives a day in the French life, goes to sleep, wakes up back in the New York life and lives for another day before going to sleep and back again. And so it goes. Is one life a dream? Or both? Is she imagining things, or stuck in some rift? To complicate things, as always happens in film, there are two men, one for each life. Aaron (William Fichtner) is a kind, caring businessman in the New York life who she begins a relationship with. In France she meets compassionate, romantic William (Stellen Skarsgard) who she also begins to fall for. Quite the predicament, no? If the premise sounds familiar to you, here's why: there was a short lived NBC drama called Awake which ran for one season, starred Jason Isaacs and had the exact same setup. Now while the show obviously borrowed it's central plot line from this film, it's no big deal because it's such a great idea it deserves more than just one shot. The film is quiet, pleasant and sweet, never really taking steps to explain it's concept but simply letting it's characters live within it in perplexed, whimsical harmony. Moore has an inherent sweetness to her and she's wonderful here. One might think a protagonist who is put through a scenario would be confused, stressed out and damaged. Moore plays it her own way, as she always had. Her character is enchanted by her situation, if a little wary. Skarsgard and Fichtner are left field choices for romantic leads, as both are kind of considered character actors with stark, specific looks. Both play it straight here and their casting helps the film loads. Marie has two separate therapists, each from one of the lives (an element which the NBC show used as well), played by Joss Ackland and Peter Riegart. It's not to serious, not too fluffy, just the right kind of low key romance with an imaginative streak and a high concept that fits neatly into the story.

Martha - or Marty - is bound between two worlds, one of which is made of dreams, but she has yet to find out where she really belongs to. What first looks like a boring two-sided love story slowly reveals itself as a shallow but poetic reflection on the particularities of an unusual life and the difficulties embodied in it for both the heroin and its siblings. Difficulties which put her on a journey of questions and facts with the ultimate goal to put and end to it all. Subtile jokes here and there, nothing wrong but nothing deep about this movie, hints too big to be missed only to leave you with little satisfaction of being right when time comes and not worth much discussing with friends after it. Something to watch (and at least not too boring) with your mother, a thing made easier with Demi Moore appearance; A good romance for those mothers to watch with their good sons.

I went to see "Passion of Mind" because I usually get a kick out of the genre of alternate reality romances, i.e. "Sliding Doors," "Me, Myself, I," etc. But this was the worst one I've ever seen! I had to force myself to sit through it. I didn't even stay through the credits which is unheard of for me.The magical realism was completely missing because Demi Moore was grim and the lovers she was two-timing were guys who usually play villains, though each was kind of sexy and appealing.There was actually a psychological explanation provided for the dual lives, with a distasteful frisson of The Elektra Complex; maybe the magic shouldn't be explained for this genre to work.(originally written 5/28/2000)

This is a very fine film, one I very nearly missed because of my disdain for Demi Moore. But I was wrong. Director Alain Berliner gives her both the safe space and the restraint that she needs to go beyond herself and produce by far the best performance of her career (of the films I have seen).With a very fine ensemble cast including Willaim Fichtner, Stellan Skårsgard, Joss Ackland, Sinead Cusack and Peter Riegert, this film offers a delicate exploration of questions central to human psychology and the interaction of our inner and outer lives.Beautifully photographed by Eduardo Serra and surprisingly well-written by Hollywood regular Ron Bass and relative neophyte David Field, this film at first appears to be heading for typical "Women's Film" territory, but Berliner and the writers put a wholly original, subtly crafted spin on it that makes it anything but predictable and ordinary.I have a complete review of the film up at my website: www.thenedpages.com - then click on "critical analysis" and pick it off the list of reviews.