The Rich Man's Wife (1996)

Wonderful character development!

hyped garbage

Best movie ever!

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Halle Berry, around 30 in this movie, not yet the big name she was to become, plays Josie Potenza, married to an older wealthy man after they had barely known each other. Her husband Tony is played ably by veteran Christopher McDonald. His drinking problem seems to get in the way in his marriage. However, they talk, he agrees to try to quit drinking, and they drive into the Pacific Coast wilderness to spend some secluded time together. However, Tony is called back to work and Josie stays behind to enjoy the solitude. She makes a mistake when she goes to a local bar alone, attracts the attention of a strange looking man Cole (Peter Greene) but, in the cool and wet he gives her a ride back to the cabin, apparently an OK guy.Now, I can't say anymore about the actual story without giving away some key themes. I wouldn't necessarily recommend the movie to anyone, but if you see it, much better not to know too much. Berry is nice looking, the acting is pretty much what it should be, but the story relies on some twists near the end, and when it was over I felt a bit cheated. It isn't a totally bad movie, but it isn't a very good one either.SPOILERS. Even though Josie claims she loves her husband, she is at the same time having an affair with Jake Golden (Clive Owen). When in the wild she had to rebuff advances by Cole, even shooting and grazing him on the side of the face. He ends up back at her home, and follows her husband, getting into his car at night during an ATM stop, making him drive to a park, where he chased him down and shot him multiple times. Turns out he had been hired by Jake to get rid of Tony, but it was supposed to happen in the wild. Jake was broke and this was part of his plan to get Josie and her dead husband's riches. But Josie had a plan of her own, with Jake's wife Nora, and in the final scene we see Nora and Josie going away together, having disposed of the bad guy Cole and each of their cheating husbands.

I would have considered "The Rich Man's Wife" a wonderfully acted and competently made, if cliché ridden, "Women in peril" chick flick, except for the last five minutes. The ending redeems the movie and makes it a "must see" mystery for those who enjoy movies such as "The Six Sense" and "Wild Things". Peter Greene takes the obnoxious, menacing villain to new levels of creepiness; and Clea Lewis dominates every one of her small scenes. I just wish the movie had used the "Wild Things" end credits technique to tie everything together a little better.WARNING: SPOILERFor those who complain of pot holes and "Berry tells the story in the first person, but scenes occur that she couldn't possibly know" is misguided. Since Berry and Lewis have concocted the entire story to kill their husbands and inherit the estates, of course the story is going to have some disjointed elements. Their dialog is meant to tell the dumb, chauvinistic cops just what they want to hear; or, at least, what they would expect from a couple of women. Most likely, Berry lured Clive Owen's character to the house and shot him. Likewise, she may have actually recruited Peter Greene herself and killed him once he was no longer useful. "If she paid Cole $30,000, where is the money?" asks the cops and DA? Obviously, Cole (Peter Greene) never had the $30,000. Berry gave it to Clea Lewis, so Berry and Lewis could live off it until the estates of their late husbands cleared probate. That might also explain how Cole got through security gates and the alarm system, to get into the house and menace Berry on two occasions; not to mention, how Cole got Berry's gun to use to kill Berry's husband.END OF SPOILERSHopefully, one day, critics and viewers will take a second look at "The Rich Man's Wife," just as they did "Vertigo."I give "The Rich Man's Wife" an "8"

I started watching The Rich Man's Wife, even though the title alone would suggest a crappy, soap-ish kind of movie. But I was pleasantly surprised with this murder mystery, although in flashbacks we see that there's not much of a mystery as to who was killing who.What I liked was the way Halley Berry's character's handled herself in such a strong, almost "Ripley" like way; not some simpering, whimpering victim. She shoots the "bad guy" with a precision that professional marksmen would envy. It's a good movie, right up to the ending, then along comes that final twist-- the one plot twist too many-- that shot the whole movie to hell for me. Had the last five minutes not happened, for it me it would have been almost perfect movie, so I give this movie 5/10.

Halle Berry's beauty is ALMOST reason enough to sit through any film, and here she's surrounded by a good supporting cast. But this glossy thriller (great cinematography by Haskell Wexler) spins a familiar tale, and in the end turns out to be a blatant rip-off of "The Usual Suspects" (even using pretty much the same closing shot). The trick that "Suspects" pulled on the audience was quite unique, and this picture came out too soon afterwards not to be accused of plagiarism. (**)