Final Analysis (1992) is an American neo-noir drama directed by Phil Joanou and written by Wesley Strick. The executive producers were Richard Gere and Maggie Wilde.[1]
Plot
The film tells of Isaac Barr (Richard Gere), a top notch San Francisco Freudian psychiatrist, who has Diana Baylor (Uma Thurman) on the patient's couch. He's treating her for frightening and horrific childhood memories which include images of her drunken father and his death in a fire for which she wasn't blamed. One night, the stunning Heather Evans (Kim Basinger) enters Barr's office and says she's Baylor's sister. She asks Barr for information about her sister's case.
It's implied that, as part of the treatment, Isaac speaks to Heather to find out more about her sister's past experiences and to determine if she might provide information Diana has forgotten.
Not long after Heather seduces Isaac and a steamy affair follows.
The problem: Heather is married to Jimmy Evans (Eric Roberts), a violent and wealthy gangster. She has a way of embarrassing Jimmy in public by taking a sip of wine and then flipping into an attack of "pathological intoxication," which can end with the restaurant in shambles.
Soon, we discover it's not Diana that needs the professional psychiatric help but Heather. She's trying to involve unsuspecting Isaac in a plan to murder Jimmy and collect a 4 million dollar double indemnity life insurance policy on him. She's also using Diana as bait and wants Isaac framed for the murder.
Cast
- Richard Gere as Dr. Isaac Barr
- Kim Basinger as Heather Evans
- Uma Thurman as Diana Baylor
- Eric Roberts as Jimmy Evans
- Paul Guilfoyle as Mike O'Brien
- Keith David as Detective Huggins
- Robert Harper as Alan Lowenthal
- Agustin Rodriguez as Pepe Carrero
- Rita Zohar as Dr. Grusin
- George Murdock as Judge Costello
- Shirley Prestia as Dist. Atty. Kaufman
- Tony Genaro as Hector
- Katherine Cortez as Woman Speaker
- Wood Moy as Dr. Lee
- Corey Fischer as Forensic Doctor
- Jack Shearer as Insurance Consultant Doctor
- Lee Anthony as Judge
- Derick Alexander as Ambulance Attendant
- Abigail Van Alyn as Night Nurse
Critical reception
Film critic Roger Ebert liked the screenplay and thought director Alfred Hitchcock, known for these types of thrillers, would have liked it as well. He wrote, "I'm a sucker for movies that look and feel like this. I like the pounding romantic music, the tempestuous sex scenes, the crafty ways that neurotic meddlers destroy the lives of their victims, and of course the handcrafted climax..."[2]
Vincent Canby, film critic for The New York Times, was pleased with the work of the actors in the film and wrote, "Mr. Gere and Ms. Basinger are attractive as the furious lovers, but Mr. Roberts is the film's electrical force whenever he is on screen. Ms. Thurman does well as a sort of up scale slavey."[3]
The staff at Variety magazine gave the film a positive film review, writing, "Final Analysis is a crackling good psychological melodrama [from a screen story by Robert Berger and Wesley Strick] in which star power and slick surfaces are used to potent advantage. Tantalizing double-crosses mount right up to the eerie final scene."[4]
However, many reviews were similar to film critic Kathleen Maher's views. She believes the director was painting by numbers in this thriller and repeats what's been filmed in many film noirs before. She wrote, "Joanou, with his puppy dog devotion to noir thrillers and Hitchcock, is hoping to get it all right by painting by the numbers. He's mixed parts of Double Indemnity, The Big Sleep, and Vertigo, but the result doesn't even live up to Dead Again..." Maher also says she's seen Gere's acting like this before, and added: "[B]ut Gere reverts to that shell-shocked acting style he adopts when lost at sea."[5]
Currently, the film has a 53 percent "Rotten" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on fifteen reviews.[6]
Distribution
The producers used the following tagline to market the film:
- A psychiatrist and two beautiful sisters playing the ultimate mind game.
The film opened in wide release on February 7, 1992.
The box-office receipts were considered poor given the talent of Gere and Basinger, and the well regarded director. The first week's gross was $6,411,441 and the total receipts for the film's run were $28,590,665.
In its widest release the film was featured in 1,599 theaters across the United Sates.[7]
Awards
Nominations
Unwelcomed nominations
- ^ Final Analysis at the Internet Movie Database.
- ^ Ebert, Roger. Chicago Sun-Times, film review, February 7, 1992. Last accessed: January 18, 2008.
- ^ Canby, Vincent. The New York Times, film review, February 7, 1992.
- ^ Variety. Film review, February 7, 1992. Last accessed: January 18, 2008.
- ^ Maher, Kathleen. The Austin Chronicle, February 14, 1992.
- ^ Final Analysis at Rotten Tomatoes. Last accessed: November 30, 2007.
- ^ The Numbers box office data. Last accessed: November 30, 2007.
See also
External links
