Separate Lives (1995)

Pretty Good

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

***SPOILERS*** Having just retired from the police at the young age of 40 on a full 100% disability pension Tom Beckwith, James Belushi, who seems to be, from what he goes through in the movie, in the best of health decides to become a psychiatrist to fill in his spear time taking studies at the local collage from psychology professor Lauren Porter, Linda Hamilton, who we soon find out needs to see a psychiatrist herself.Lauren is suffering from a split personality that resulted 20 years ago when she witnessed her mother being shot to pieces by someone she can't remember and feels that she in fact may have been her mom's murderer! There's also the recent murder on the beach of her friend Jane Weiss, Pat Delany, who may have known who murdered Lauren's mother and was about to go public with it! Beckwith more interest in Lauren then his studies in class takes it upon himself, with Lauren's urging, to find out what makes her tick. That by him following her after classes to find out that Lauren leads a double life as party girl and part time hooker Lena that leads him to be brutally beaten up by her Limey-British-boyfriend Keno Sykes,M.L Chapman, and his friends for sticking his nose where it doesn't belong.***SPOILERS*** Still trying to get to the bottom of all this Beckwith now fully recovered takes care of business by first tracking down Keno catching him taking a shower and giving him the beating of his life for what he and his boys did to him. It's then on to business in, now as a armature psychiatrist, curing Lauren of her hang ups that have to do with her mom's murder that she somehow feels responsible for. What Beckwith gets is getting Lauren to remember who her mom's real killer was and what he did to screw up her mind in believing that she not he in fact murdered her! No really a big surprise in who really murdered Lauren's mom but a real shock in him showing up just in time, like out of nowhere, to finish off both Lauren and Beckwith, whom he shot, to keep him from being exposed as the killer. Like I said for a man with a 100% disability pension Beckwith had no trouble recovering from a savage beating and then working over one of those who beat him-Keno-so badly to the point where he ended up in traction. Beckwith also was able to recover from a gunshot wound and finish off the person who shot him by tackling him and shoving out of a two story window to his death. As for the now recovered from her guilt feeling Lauren she ended up in a mental asylum to recover from all the trauma, as a both psychology professor and hooker, that she went through in the movie.

Former Detective Belushi is hired by his Psychology teacher (Hamilton) to follow her around as she believes she's living a double life. Belushi finds out she is indeed living a double life as his teacher is schizophrenic and her second lifestyle is a dangerous one. In the meantime they fall for each other.A decent enough story gets mediocre screen treatment, starts off well but loses steam towards the end and the climax is wholly unsatisfying. The actors elevate the film to above average material with convincing performances, Belushi especially good as the widowed former detective. But I must mention that Linda Hamilton, in addition to giving a good performance, has never looked more stunning than here.With a slightly better script and ending the film could have been very good.

Not so long ago I was watching Terminator 2 on DVD and thinking "Linda Hamilton WAS the sexiest screen actress of the 1990s!". Some Hollywood high-roller obviously agreed, and tragically this unerotic, mediocre thriller was born. There is, it has to be said, a lot to be said for sweat, glycerine and extreme body-sculpting. Re-packaged as a low budget "rock chick" in rubber-band miniskirts and chromed leather jacket, Linda looks disappointingly like a what a middle-aged movie executive's secretary wears in his dreams. And whatever happened to James Belushi? A former Arnie co-star, like Linda, in the 80's he was the dependable face of action movies that couldn't afford Bruce Willis. This predictable pot-boiler is not a career high for either. James is let down by the director, often looking wooden, and Linda's split personality psychotherapist swings from a reprise of "Sarah Connor on Thorazine" in T2 to her unconvincing rock-chick alter-ego. The twist in the tail murderer is obvious from the moment "Laura's" flashbacks begin. I was ill, I was stuck in bed, and this was the most watchable thing on TV last night. Shame on me, I had a book to read, and shame on the TV schedulers too.

Nothing really noteworthy enough here to comment on; just your ordinary, run-of-the-mill, middling mystery thriller. The mystery plot keeps you watching, but it relies almost exclusively on the all-important Final Revelation of the Childhood Trauma, and when there are almost no thrills along the way, a viewer can get really impatient (even Hitchcock failed that way, in "Marnie"). James Belushi sleepwalks through his role without any zest, but Linda Hamilton gets to show off - on many occasions - her impressively "sculpted" body, and also some moderate acting talent, though the rapid transformations of her character become a little silly in the final 30 minutes. (**)