Retro Film Review: Never Talk to Strangers (1995)
Rebecca de Mornay's best remembered role is the villainess in psychological thriller The Hand That Rocks a Craddle. Half a decade later she tried to get another boost to her career by playing in a film of the same genre. She took the role of movie's protagonist and executive producer and the result of her efforts was Never Talk to Strangers, 1995 thriller directed by first- time British filmmaker Peter Hall.
In this film De Mornay plays Dr. Susan Taylor, clinical psychologist specialised for study of homicidal psychopaths. Her latest case is Max Chesky (played by Harry Dean Stanton), imprisoned serial rapist/killer whose sanity she must evaluate. In the meantime she must also deal with the psychological aftermath of the disastrous relationship. Another man, Tony Ramirez (played by Antonio Banderas), dark, mysterious and at times scary Spaniard, enters her life. Despite her better judgment, Dr. Taylor becomes romantically involved with him. Soon afterwards she becomes target of an insane stalker and begins to wonder who that maniac might be - some of Chesky's associates, Tony or someone who is much closer to her?
De Mornay's acting in Never Talk to Strangers is very good, but that performance, together with brief but effective appearance of Harry Dean Stanton, isn't enough to make this film particularly memorable. De Mornay again chose bad script. Lewis A. Green and Jordan Rush filled the story with characters and situations previously seen in hundreds of other (and in many cases much better) movies. The great plot twist, that should have made this film into something original, could have been easily predicted by anyone familiar to modern Hollywood's psychiatrist cliches. The film could have been spiced up with some eroticism (and De Mornay definitely had potential in that department), but this was ruined by Peter Hall's inept direction and terribly miscast Antonio Banderas who didn't have much romantic chemistry with De Mornay. Because of that, and because of even more inept dialogue, Never Talk to Strangers is barely watchable and it is easy to understand why this film, like so many other psychological thrillers from early to mid 1990s, sank to oblivion.
RATING: 3/10 (+)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on December 2nd 2002)
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