Customer Reviews

Reflections in the Dark [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a talkie film, one of those movies where there is not much movement or action, but a lot of time is spent in conversation. A talkie film has to have a really good subject and great acting to hold the audience, and I think Reflections in the Dark succeeds at least partially.
It is similar in vein to another Mimi Rogers movie, Full Body Massage. That one was basically a prolonged conversation between Mimi's character and Bryan Brown's masseuse. In this movie the conversation is between a woman on death row and the guard assigned to her the night before her execution. Billy Zane plays the guard. I've always had respect for Zane as an actor although he is under-utilized.
As Mimi tells her story (both to Zane and in a diary she keeps), we see glimpses of her life in flashback. We find out she murdered her husband, although we are never sure how exactly she murdered him because she visualizes different ways of killing him: shooting him, poisoning him, accidently slitting his throat as she lashes out at him.
The even bigger question is why she murdered him. We are never provided a reasonable answer. Mimi's character can't provide a reasonable motive, even to herself it seems. She and her husband seemed to be in love (at least at one stage), he wasn't abusive, and she didn't profit financially from his death.
Zane's character is infatuated with Mimi. As the hours progress toward her reckoning, he confesses he followed her trial in the news, even sat in on her trial, and how he bribed another guard to get the death row assignment. The characters move toward intimacy but cannot consummate their feelings.
This is overall an interesting film, worth seeing. It's probably Roger Corman's most thoughtful "girls in prison" piece. We do get to see Mimi's sexy side (i.e., in the buff), but it doesn't drive the plot.

A rare example of a film that would have worked equally well as a stage play featuring a virtuoso performance by one of the great dramatic actresses of our time, Mimi Rogers. The film is well crafted with a sharp script and tight direction by Jon Purdy who makes effective use of flashbacks to tell a story that raises the all-important "Why?" question and offers an answer that will stay with you.

Generally, I like romantic comedies. Which makes it twice as odd that I felt as strongly about this movie as I did. It just left that tingly feeling in the pit of my stomach, and I couldn't stop watching it. The movie posed all these questions without ever quite answering them, but it didn't ignore them either. The acting was incredible and the movie was very- provocative. It may be going down on my list of favorite movies of all time.. right up there with "When Harry Met Sally" and other such romantic shmooze fests...

I really like Billy Zane.I think he is not noticed enough.One of the things I enjoyed about this movie was the intense bond that grew between him and Mimi in one night.The Mimi Rodgers character never really revealed her motivations. Interesting.