Unbelievably bad. Writer/director Jonathan Darby concocts a ridiculous southern fried horror tale. Jessica Lange, channeling both Blanche Dubois AND Baby Jane Hudson, runs a horse farm and is visited by son Johnathon Schaech and new bride Gwyneth Paltrow. Oedipal mayhem ensues. Lange, unable to let Schaech go, terrorizes Paltrow. By the time Paltrow winds up in bed giving birth the film reaches a frenzied level of camp. It's always a curiosity how good actors end up in such dreck. It's a wonder if Lange, Schaech and Paltrow read the script, a half-baked amalgamation of Tennessee Williams and Tobe Hooper. While the supporting cast is populated with the dependable Hal Holbrook, Nina Foch, and Debi Mazer, they bring very little to the film. Foch is used merely to explain the motives of the deranged Lange. Lange's performance takes it's place next to Faye Dunaway's Joan Crawford in the pantheon of American Kabuki.
Review of Hush
