Yeah, this is a late entry in that psycho-thriller sub-genre of the early 1990s, and the second you discover that the film sat on the shelf for two years before release you know it's going to be a stinker. When actress Jessica Lange herself described it in less than complimentary terms the instinct is to hurl it onto the fire and get as far away as possible.
Nevertheless, I sat through this in its entirety, glutton for punishment as I am. And it's a weak thriller for sure, in which the thrills are non-existent and the plot is even more laboured than Gwyneth Paltrow's character. Basically, she meets and falls for the perfect guy, falls pregnant and marries him, only to discover that her new mother-in-law holds more than a few dark secrets and is already obsessed with the unborn child.
The feel of the movie has more in common with a lukewarm TV movie of the era than a theatrical film and indeed there's very little of interest here. Most of the film relies on acting from a very average Paltrow to get by, and her protagonist is hardly a sympathetic one. Lange is better, channelling some of the energy of the grand old matriarch psychos (think Joan Crawford in WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?), but her performance alone does not a good film make.
Nevertheless, I sat through this in its entirety, glutton for punishment as I am. And it's a weak thriller for sure, in which the thrills are non-existent and the plot is even more laboured than Gwyneth Paltrow's character. Basically, she meets and falls for the perfect guy, falls pregnant and marries him, only to discover that her new mother-in-law holds more than a few dark secrets and is already obsessed with the unborn child.
The feel of the movie has more in common with a lukewarm TV movie of the era than a theatrical film and indeed there's very little of interest here. Most of the film relies on acting from a very average Paltrow to get by, and her protagonist is hardly a sympathetic one. Lange is better, channelling some of the energy of the grand old matriarch psychos (think Joan Crawford in WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?), but her performance alone does not a good film make.