Personally I am not overly keen on murder mystery thrillers, much less police investigation movies. The reason for "Mercy" having a place in my DVD collection is because Julian Sands is in it. And I have had the movie for months before I got around to actually watching it.
The story is fairly straight forward, as for being a murder mystery. However, there are some twists and plot turns here and there, letting the viewers in the dark and guessing as to who is the actual killer. Bit by bit, we are given pieces and hints as to whom it is, although I will say that my money was not on the actual killer, so that was a nice turn of events.
Personally, I wasn't overly impressed by the movie, as it was generic and the story came off as forced and halting. And certain things throughout the movie were just so out there that they weren't believable. For example, why would detective Cathy Palmer let the murder suspect Vickie Kittrie into her personal home, socialize with her and even succumb to sexual advices? It was just so unprofessional behavior of a police officer that it was downright painful to behold. But hey, without it, there would be no movie, I suppose.
Being a fan of Julian Sands and having seen most of his movies, it is always a thrill to see him in the quite often less than ordinary roles that he takes on. And his performance (and role) in "Mercy" is just that, another of the quirky roles that he executes well.
Despite not being a fan of murder mysteries, then "Mercy" was actually quite interesting, if you can suffer through the obvious flaws and the slow pace the movie moves forward in. I had to give up at 50 minutes into the movie, and then continue watching the following day. The movie is mind-numbingly slow.
Personally, I found that the movie had a little bit too much focus on the sexual nature of the storyline and used a bit too much screen time on showcasing the scenes.
"Mercy" deals with some pretty heavy issues, such as incest, S/M, bondage, transvestism, voyeurism, just to mention a couple of the aspects of the storyline. So it is a matter of personal preference whether or not the story is interesting or not. I found it a bit too much.
The upside to the movie was the people they had cast for the various roles, whom did good jobs with their characters and their acting. Ellen Barkin (playing detective Cathy Palmer), Peta Wilson (playing Vicki Kittrie), Julian Sands (playing Dr. Dominick Broussard) and Karen Young (playing Mary) were really putting on some great performances, which made the movie just that much more tolerable to sit through.
My overall impression of the movie was mediocre.
The story is fairly straight forward, as for being a murder mystery. However, there are some twists and plot turns here and there, letting the viewers in the dark and guessing as to who is the actual killer. Bit by bit, we are given pieces and hints as to whom it is, although I will say that my money was not on the actual killer, so that was a nice turn of events.
Personally, I wasn't overly impressed by the movie, as it was generic and the story came off as forced and halting. And certain things throughout the movie were just so out there that they weren't believable. For example, why would detective Cathy Palmer let the murder suspect Vickie Kittrie into her personal home, socialize with her and even succumb to sexual advices? It was just so unprofessional behavior of a police officer that it was downright painful to behold. But hey, without it, there would be no movie, I suppose.
Being a fan of Julian Sands and having seen most of his movies, it is always a thrill to see him in the quite often less than ordinary roles that he takes on. And his performance (and role) in "Mercy" is just that, another of the quirky roles that he executes well.
Despite not being a fan of murder mysteries, then "Mercy" was actually quite interesting, if you can suffer through the obvious flaws and the slow pace the movie moves forward in. I had to give up at 50 minutes into the movie, and then continue watching the following day. The movie is mind-numbingly slow.
Personally, I found that the movie had a little bit too much focus on the sexual nature of the storyline and used a bit too much screen time on showcasing the scenes.
"Mercy" deals with some pretty heavy issues, such as incest, S/M, bondage, transvestism, voyeurism, just to mention a couple of the aspects of the storyline. So it is a matter of personal preference whether or not the story is interesting or not. I found it a bit too much.
The upside to the movie was the people they had cast for the various roles, whom did good jobs with their characters and their acting. Ellen Barkin (playing detective Cathy Palmer), Peta Wilson (playing Vicki Kittrie), Julian Sands (playing Dr. Dominick Broussard) and Karen Young (playing Mary) were really putting on some great performances, which made the movie just that much more tolerable to sit through.
My overall impression of the movie was mediocre.