Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Melodramatic, But Flaws Are Few., July 10, 2005
Capably crafted from beginning to end, this melodrama, with alternate titles of TRICK EYES and PORTRAIT OF A JOHN, is an Italian/U.S. co-production made for television, and will please those viewers responsive to interesting cinema. Christopher Jordan (William Shatner), an aeronautical engineer, is becoming restive due to a frustrating home life with an attractive wife, Katie (Michelle Phillips), toward whom he has become sexually indifferent (increasingly problematic since he dwells upon past intimacy), and with three lively and demanding offspring. Although Jordan wishes to keep intact their 12 year marriage, he is artless and inexperienced and begins to savour the possibilities of having assignations with street walking prostitutes. His fantasies become fact, but after some close scrapes, one with venereal disease, another with a police vice sting, Jordan ceases his clandestine copulation, albeit the marital incompatibility continues. While shopping in a lingerie store to find something fetching that could repair the cracked relationship with his spouse, Chris is boldly approached by an ostensibly stringless call girl, Elaine (Cybill Shepherd). Vulnerable Christopher quickly becomes more emotionally attached to Elaine than is wise for his general welfare, and he becomes adrift between a respectable domestic existence and an affair of lust that has a potential of becoming something larger. However, Elaine might not be as agreeable a person as she initially appears to be, and Jordan finds himself spiralling into a distressed state. Eventually, due to his hidden relationship with Elaine, Chris is in danger of losing all else that is important to him, and he is forced to make desperate choices. Perfectly paced by competent director William A. Graham, the film additionally benefits from skillful acting, Shepherd a standout as an apparently conflicted lady of the evening, while Phillips earns the performing laurels here with her nuanced reading as Katie. Attention to detail is remarkable throughout, important in the development of a strong sense of realism in the face of sleazy happenings as a well-scripted story by Dennis Nemec serves as aid to Graham, providing arresting characters for Graham to deploy without serious lapses in credibility and logic. Editor Ronald Fagan seamlessly polishes the work that is set and shot in Vancouver, British Columbia, and scoring from Mark Snow is consistently appropriate. Congratulations are in order for the entire crew, as well, an exceptional impartment coming from costumer Robert Turturice who adroitly marries the very fair Shepherd with suitable apparel as shifts in her personality occur, this but one example of an unusual amount of care that is taken during the patterning of this too-little known film.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
So, So, SO 70's - but that's the coolest part!, October 18, 2007
This one's got that whole late 70's/early 80's cringe inducing wardrobe vibe, and quite possibly the all-time worst of the many Shatner toupees. Still, it's an absorbing little melodrama, and if all you've ever seen William Shatner do is sexy-cool Captain Kirk or quirky-cool Denny Crane, this will be a revelation for you. Here he plays a sad-sack everyman; a typical suburban middle class loser: and very well, too.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Romantic Comedy!!, February 2, 2005
This is a great little known romantic comedy starring William Shatner and Cybil Sheperd going through a mid-life crises.It's a must see!!
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