JOHN SCHLESINGER

Bil’s rating (out of 5):  B

USA, 1996.  Paramount Pictures.  Screenplay by Amanda Silver, Rick Jaffa, based on the novel by Erika Holzer.  Cinematography by Amir Mokri.  Produced by Michael I. Levy.  Music by James Newton Howard.  roduction Design by Stephen Hendrickson.  Costume Design by Bobbie Read.  Film Editing by Peter Honess.

It’s rather unfortunate when an Oscar winning star and similarly feted director can come up with nothing better to occupy their time and talent than this bullshit TV movie fare.  Sally Field plays a woman whose life falls apart when her daughter is raped and murdered by an anonymous stranger (Kiefer Sutherland). When Sutherland’s character is acquitted by the judge based on a legal technicality, Field decides to take the law into her own hands and hunt him down herself.

What could have been a Dead Man Walking-like examination of crime, punishment and revenge ends up a trashy paperback bestseller that constantly tries to manipulate its audience with assumptive situations and cardboard characters. Then, to add the very, very worst insult possible, the movie actually lets Field have her way without getting any blood on her hands. This movie is garbage, and everyone involved with making it should be deeply ashamed of themselves, especially director John Schlesinger, who once combated this type of filmmaking; watch In The Bedroom for something that examines the matter with more intelligence and complexity.