4/10
Almost forgotten, but essential in Julia Roberts's career.
14 December 2019
This movie is all about a case of domestic, physical and psychological violence, where the wife of a controlling and violent husband decides to fake his own death in order to escape and start living again. Of course, things get complicated later, when the husband discovers that he was deceived and starts looking for the runaway wife. A classic thriller where she can run but can't hide, which marked (along with "Pretty Woman") Julia Roberts' rise as an actress.

This is, to a large extent, a movie that has aged quite badly, I think. Looking at him today, it is hard not to see him as a rather weak movie, where only the quality of the actress who gives life to the main character stands out. Continuously betting on the emotional response of the audience, the script is tiring and the story told has a series of problems of logic and likelihood. For starters, why did you prefer the character to fake her own death rather than go to the police, tell everything, risk it, and file for divorce? It was, to a large extent, the first thing to do. And that trick with the broken street lamp? If there wasn't such bad weather on this boat trip, how was she going to pretend she drowned convincingly? There's a lot of luck on her escape. And there's a lack of tension and suspense throughout most of the movie, except for the hospital scene, where things get really hot and we're glued to the screen. Even the ending of the movie was too warm and that was disappointing.

Nonetheless, the story is solid enough to withstand the movie and get us to see it all the way through. The construction of the two central characters, played by Julia Roberts (in a performance that showed that she was a safe bet for the industry and a promise of talent), and Patrick Bergin, who can turn his character into something worthy of the game. our hatred, although sometimes quite cartoonish. The worst was really Kevin Anderson, in such a nice stupid character.

In short, this is a highly dated movie that has aged very badly, almost falling into oblivion. The one thing that made this movie not completely forgotten was Roberts' performance, which manages to show a promise of talent and make the movie worthwhile in the least.
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