What might have been even more effective with a better script is this dark melodrama which seems to borrow heavily from past psychological melodramas--particularly those films of Hitchcock which rely on such settings as the final showdown between Gere and Basinger. Camera effects in the lighthouse spiral staircase seem to borrow from the bell tower scene in Hitch's "Vertigo". As does the use of San Francisco settings--but lacking is a score such as Bernard Herrmann supplied or a script that makes the events seem credible.
Kim Basinger does well enough as the woman behind the mysterious plot but never manages to be entirely convincing when the plot calls for heavy dramatics. Richard Gere almost sleep walks through his role. But Uma Thurman and Eric Roberts deliver what can only be described as "creepy" portraits that linger in the mind after the film ends. And end it does on a bravura note with a raging thunderstorm and a return visit to the lighthouse under more dire circumstances the second time.
The final scene is Thurman's big moment. But it all has the air of deja vu thanks to all those psychological thrillers of the '40s that got even better effects when filmed in glorious B&W.
Kim Basinger does well enough as the woman behind the mysterious plot but never manages to be entirely convincing when the plot calls for heavy dramatics. Richard Gere almost sleep walks through his role. But Uma Thurman and Eric Roberts deliver what can only be described as "creepy" portraits that linger in the mind after the film ends. And end it does on a bravura note with a raging thunderstorm and a return visit to the lighthouse under more dire circumstances the second time.
The final scene is Thurman's big moment. But it all has the air of deja vu thanks to all those psychological thrillers of the '40s that got even better effects when filmed in glorious B&W.