Bacall-3

Sandra Bullock, Gene Rowlands, and Mae Whitman were totally wasted talents in this badly scripted and edited movie.. I keep wondering what might have been, what could have been, what SHOULD have been given the premise: Former small Southern town beauty queen returns home after national dumping by her philandering husband and her "best friend" on cheesy TV talk show..No wonder Rosanna Arquette didn't want her name in the credits as the homewrecker Connie!

Being from a small Southern town, I found the gossip and lasciviousness to be pretty true to form (if Birdie(Sandra) developed any nudies in the photo shop, she was to make an extra copy for the old geezer that owned the place). Other than a few acid-dripping remarks that were on target, the rest of the movie was a horrible disappointment.

Sandra's character is accused of drinking several times in the film, and although no alcohol consumption is seen or hinted at except for one bar scene, it certainly would have explained the zombie-like shadows of characters.

We are left hanging with a bare bones plot, husband and his lover humiliate wife on T.V., she packs up small daughter and heads for the comforts of home with mother. Comforts?? I didn't see any. Gene Rowlands was funny, in an eccentric way, but the eccentricities seemed to be pulled from a bag of bad writer's tricks. We are supposed to believe that Birdie fell in love again with the High School sweetheart that she dumped for the no-good Bill, but all I could think was, "If this man's house was on fire, would he move fast enough to get out, and would he even have the emotional fortitude to care?" The love interest had no sparks, no believability, and very little on the beam. I can see why he didn't make it in California as an architect. Heck, he can't even find steady employment in Smithville (too slow, they rightfully say).

The only bright spot was little Mae Whitman, the small daughter, whom many will recognize as Casey from "When A Man Loves A Woman" (GREAT MOVIE!), Sara from "Chicago Hope", and Patricia from "Independence Day". I hope to see Mae again soon in a good movie..it's a sad day when the only actress in a star-filled cast doing much acting is knee high to a grasshopper.

I am a woman, and usually like touchy, feely, humanistic stories about everyday life, but there was very little life here. I am extremely disappointed when I mentally compare what could have been and what was. IF I had paid full theater ticket prices to see this, I would have felt ripped off in the extreme. "Places In The Heart" is an example of a similar movie that WORKS!

The plot is simple on one level: A group of girls at a private school, growing up and experiencing the throes of adolescence angst. On a much more subtle level, there is an indefinable presence.... Is it a spectre? Or are the girls' over-active imaginations causing them to believe that sinister things are happening around them, especially at Hanging Rock? (a nearby scenic landmark with a possible secret).

The beauty of the film is its softness, and how effectively it is used to convey horror by its SILENCE...The costumes of the period and the music are lulling, as is the beautiful sometimes soft-focus cinematography.One is unprepared for the lingering chill in the room as the movie ends. There are also the lingering doubts: What really happened at Hanging Rock? Each viewer is left to decide... **NOTE: This is not an action adventure, not a typical horror or mystery. I cannot fit it into any one category, ART is the most likely, although it is certainly dramatic. I doubt very much that many men I know would want to watch this, so forewarned..it is not for the action-adventure crowd.

I watched this movie for the first time yesterday, mostly to see Mia Farrow after she had left "Peyton Place". I found that the premise of the movie and the hidden messages within are very powerful, indeed.

I quickly saw that what has been called a "classic Horror movie" was really a Gothic spoof of the "GOD IS DEAD" movement that was in full force at the time of the writing. Rosemary even picks up a TIME magazine with the cover words, "IS GOD DEAD"?

In analyzing the scenes with the child, and listening to the liturgy of the satanic cult, it is clear that the message of the movie/book was: Life does not exist in a vacuum, you must choose to believe in good and evil. If you choose to believe in JUST evil, i.e., God is dead, then Rosemary's ultimate world is the world that you would live in. Dark, dead, without hope, and with a Satan-child to worship.

Roman Polanski did a terrific job with the direction of the movie, of course. Mia Farrow was the perfect waif-child to portray the progenitor of Satan's offspring. I did not care for the actor cast as her husband, he never quite settled into the part, but maybe his role was supposed to be ambiguous. The neighbors were funny, not chilling, as was the cult scene at the end of the movie.

All in all, I would give it a 5 out of 10 because it was a social message disguised as a horror movie....I have to wonder how many people actually realized the subliminal theme?