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| COLD HEAVEN (director:
Nicolas Roeg; screenwriter: from the novel by Brian
Moore/Allan Scott; cinematographer: Francis Kelly;
editor: Tony Lawson; music: Stanley Myers; cast: Theresa
Russell (Maria Davenport), Mark Harmon (Dr.
Alex Davenport), James Russo (Dr.
Daniel Corvin), Talia
Shire (Sister Martha), Richard Bradford
(Monsignor
Cassidy), Will Patton (Father Niles),
Julie Carmen (Anna Corvin),
Seymour Cassel (Tom Farrelly);
Runtime: 105; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Allan
Scott/Jonathan Crane; Hemdale Home Video; 1991) "The ambitious film doesn't always make sense or make things clear or have a convincing ending to its mystery, but is always intelligently handled, well-acted, emotionally charged and provocative." Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz Brian Moore's book has been freely adapted for the screen by Allan Scott. Director Nicolas Roeg ("Two Deaths"/"Eureka"/"Performance") helms a tense film that blends into a psychological thriller, a melodrama about adultery, a guilt-trip for a lapsed Catholic and a mystical film about troubling visions over possible demonic possession. The ambitious film doesn't always make sense or make things clear or have a convincing ending to its mystery, but is always intelligently handled, well-acted, emotionally charged and provocative. Thirty-something
LA couple, Maria Davenport (Theresa
Russell) and her pathologist hubby Dr.
Alex Davenport (Mark Harmon), are on a
business/holiday in Acapulco, Mexico, when a boat rams
into him while he's swimming and leaves him for dead.
The grief-stricken wife sulks because she didn't have
the nerve to tell him that she was leaving him for
fellow married doctor Daniel Corvin (James
Russo). Things
turn increasingly odd when her hubby's corpse
disappears before the local hospital conducts an
autopsy. Returning to LA, a crestfallen Maria, an
atheist, has some self-doubts about a recent vision
she had of the Virgin Mary telling her to rebuilt her
sanctuary. When her dead hubby turns up alive in a
motel she's staying at that is near San Francisco and
a Carmelite convent, the confused adulteress must get
help from Sister Martha (Talia Shire), Monsignor
Cassidy (Richard Bradford) and Father Niles (Will
Patton).
Afraid of what she has seen, Maria gets their
religious interpretation of her vision. The
Carmelites believe her visions have seemingly
resulted in the miraculous resurrection
of her hubby. I was
less impressed by the incredulous story, one that must
be accepted as a matter of faith, than by the way Roeg
kept such an action-less pic's disturbing pretensions
dazzling and thought-provoking throughout. REVIEWED ON 7/24/2012 GRADE: B- Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ |