Reckless (1995)

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Mia Farrow in an improbable tale of woe rivaling a Shakespearian tragedy for sheer unfortunate-ness. If this movie had a more revealing title I suppose I would call it "the nastiest of consequences for the most innocent and well-intentioned of actions." All the characters you like will be punished (not a spoiler - as we may not like the same characters). From bad to worse, from lonely to destitute, from depressing to macabre: this movie will make you feel better about you. Wherever you are, this lady is lower. The sympathy and camaraderie this movie generates for it's soft-spoken well-meaning heroine is the sharp tip that drives the depressing point home. The character's unwavering goodness in the face of (well I suppose it is rather conspicuous) misfortune is inspirational. Beautiful. I want to live again.

Walking out of the current (October 2004) revival of the Craig Lucas play I overheard a couple talking about the film version of the play and it suddenly came back to me why it all seemed familiar, I saw it on TV several years ago.The story of how a woman who's husband can't take her any more and hires a hit man to kill her, only to send her away before he arrives is a very strange story. No one and nothing is who they seem to be. And the twists and turns seem rather random. The whole bit about visiting every Springfield in the country is just plain dumb. The dialog is clever at times but mostly it seems forced. Worse is the fact that this probably should never have been made into a film. The play which is full of whimsey and is stylized does not translate into a film well. The actors are okay but many are completely wrong for the roles. The Goldwyn/Farrow coupling doesn't quite work so the story isn't believable from the get go.If given the choice of play versus movie go for the play where the whimsey works better, however you would be better off renting or seeing pretty much anything else.5 out of 10 for the bits that work.Side Note: Mary Louise Parker who plays Pootie and a couple other members of the cast of this film are in the current Broadway production. Obviously they are gluttons for punishment

I recently was in a stage version of this play. And, on the last day of the run, I was excited to see that it was going to be playing on TV. I stuck a tape in as it was on late at night, and I watched it the next day. I have to say I was very disappointed. The actors in the film made few of the discovers that are in the script. That is understandable as the resersal process is probably different, but it was upsetting to see. A lot of the original script was changed for the movie as well to make it better for the screen, but I am not sure if it helped the movie out at all. I gave this 4 stars only because I know the script and the writing is a lot better than what this movie portrays.

Produced by International Playhouse Pictures, it looks as if filmed in a doll house. Everybody's a liar, everything is dream-like, toy-like for no good reason. I'm not saying everything in all movies should be totally realistic, but such unbelievable fantasy things and situations in one movie are way too much. How did they get these fine actors -actresses particularly- to this movie? It's nice to see Mia again; if we were meant to understand why her husband wants to kill her, Mia does do it well. Not funny, not moving, just fake. Stephen Dorff briefly appears at the end, fitting for a play maybe, less for a movie, but this isn't one to measure things at. Terrible.