Peter Appel Movies
- 1990
- R
In this melodrama, a ballet dancer discovers that she is suffering from cancer and must re-evaluate her life. When she meets up with another young woman who is also ill, the two strike up a friendship. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jami Gertz, Martha Plimpton, (more)
Rusty Sabich (Harrison Ford) is a bland, oppressed man who burns with a quiet, corrosive intensity that can flare uncontrollably. A Philadelphia prosecutor, Sabich's fire seems to have one outlet: his job. He loves prosecuting people. Otherwise, his life is dead-ended. He has a loveless marriage to a neurotic woman (Bonnie Bedelia) and an overbearing boss (Brian Dennehy) in a labyrinthine law enforcement world of corruption and twisted relationships. Then Carolyn Polhemus (Greta Scacchi) comes into his life. Lovely and seductive, Polhemus easily entices him to break his marital vows, but she schemes to get him to try for his boss' job. When he refuses, she leaves him. When she turns up dead, the victim of an apparent rape-murder, clues begin to point to Sabich. His blood type almost perfectly matches that in the semen found in the victim, carpet fibers at the crime scene match those found in his house, and most damning, his fingerprints are found on a beer glass in Polhemus' apartment. His protestations of innocence ignored, Sabich is put on trial for the murder and hires his biggest adversary (Raul Julia) to defend him. ~ Nick Sambides, Jr., All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harrison Ford, Brian Dennehy, (more)
Private investigator Tom O'Toole (Nick Nolte) is reluctant to take on a case offered to him by cryptically offbeat Angela Crispini (Debra Winger), but he lets himself be seduced by her. Angela believes that Felix Daniels (Frank Military) was wrongly convicted of murdering his uncle. As O'Toole learns more about the crime, he becomes convinced that Felix was framed by corrupt local officials, including States Attorney, and old rival, Charlie Haggerty (Frank Converse). O'Toole also falls in love with Angela, who increasingly appears to be a psychologically disturbed woman who may have been involved with several of the principals. When Angela admits that she doesn't always know when she is telling the truth, she speaks to O'Toole's predicament and the film's theme: the dangers of relying on an unreliable narrator. ~ Steve Press, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Debra Winger, Nick Nolte, (more)
