REVIEW: INTERSECTION
Tak
A film review by Mark Takacs
Copyright 1994 Mark Takacs
Paramount Films / rated R
Starring: Richard Gere Sharon Stone Jennifer Morrison
Lolita Davidovich Martin Landau
Tak Classification: Romance Drama
Tak Rating: avoid it at all costs
One-Line-Summary
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A man, his wife, his daughter, his lover, his memories and his problems.
Tak Plot Summary
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Vincent Eastman (Richard Gere) is a successful architect with
Sally (Sharon Stone), his wife and business partner of sixteen years,
and a lovely daughter (Jennifer Morrison). His newfound love, Olivia
Marshak (Lolita Davidovich), fills a void in Vince's life and is more
than he can resist. He suffers lots of angst as tries to choose
between his family history, or his happiness with Olivia.
Tak Thoughts
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Lame Lame Lame. There doesn't seem to be a point to INTERSECTION,
other than to study Gere's character. At one point Vince yells at
Olivia, "It's not about you, it's about me!" How true. The whole movie
is set up so we can identify with his problems, his emotions, his
turmoil, his everything. One problem. I didn't. Vince is a dweeb. I
wished he would get it together and stop being indecisive.
The movie takes place over the span of about a week, with
*frequent* flashbacks where Vince remembers and daydreams. We see his
happy memories with Sally, his growing dissatisfaction, his meeting
with Olivia, his break with Sally, and his time as ex-husband and
single father. Of course Vince thinks highly of himself.
INTERSECTION's one action scene is the car crash featured in all
the commercials. Because of this, I initially thought the movie might
be something like REGARDING HENRY, with a tragic accident and the
aftermath. Nope. Instead, we suffer through lots of Vince's problems
first. And when the crash finally happens, the filmmakers get pretty
excited about it. So excited that it is heavily foreshadowed and even
shown twice. First we get the two-minute slo-mo version where everyone
makes their favorite anguished Sly Stallone faces, and then after the
comment--"I didn't have time to react, it all happened so fast..."--we
get to see exactly how fast two seconds is.
Sharon Stone once again successfully avoids being sexy. Unlike in
the stinker SLIVER, I think this time it was intentional. At one point
Vince remembers (and we see) a "quickie" at a family gathering that is
actually humorously sad. Poor Vince, no wonder he left.
I wouldn't have noticed this a year ago, but this movie is just
monstrously *male*. Everything supports Vincent. Olivia's stated
goal--"I just want to make your father happy". The glimpses of Megan
shows she still loves Dad and wants to be with her father, even
inviting him "out to the island" for Easter with Mom. Sally even tries
to seduce her ex-husband--"what's a girl need to do to get some action
around here", but stops herself, saying "oh, where did that come from?"
The ending was out of place ... after everything that happens, we
are left with the distinct impression that everyone, wife AND lover,
still loves Vince, that romantic rascal. Bah. I don't believe it.
The heroic strength of "character" at the end is kind of insulting.
Tak Rating system:
------------------
I didn't like this film. I won't recommend this film. I won't
even watch this film again. There wasn't enough going on to keep my
interest, either emotionally or intellectually. Maybe some of you will
like INTERSECTION, but I doubt it.
X avoid at all costs
watch it on cable
wait for videotape
see once as a matinee
see several times (w/friends) as matinee
see once at full price
see it several times - full and/or matinee
see many times at full price
Scott Renshaw
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1994 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Richard Gere, Sharon Stone, Lolita Davidovich.
Screenplay: David Rayfiel & Marshall Brickman.
Director: Mark Rydell.
Exactly when it happened, I can't put my finger on. For about
half an hour of INTERSECTION, I was intrigued, and wondered whether I
was on to my first guilty pleasure of 1994. Then, at some point, I
began to realize that INTERSECTION was taking itself far too
seriously. While the film is cleverly structured and reasonably
well-acted, it began to irritate me that it was trying to turn a
mid-life crisis into a great existential drama. Worse yet, it
presented me with a "hero" I couldn't stand and an ending that left me
angry.
As INTERSECTION opens, Vancouver architect Vincent Eastman
(Richard Gere) is spinning his Mercedes into an oncoming truck. The
rest of the film takes us back to the events leading up to that crash,
as well as its immediate aftermath. We learn that Vincent is separated
from his wife and business partner Sally (Sharon Stone), and living
with journalist Olivia Marshak (Lolita Davidovich). Vincent and Olivia
are planning to be married and to move into a house Vincent is
designing, but Vincent still finds himself jealous of Sally's new
relationship. Throughout are additional flashbacks to the early years
of Vincent and Sally's marriage, and his first meetings with Olivia.
Vincent finds himself torn between the two women, and his decision will
place him on the road to that fateful encounter with a big rig.
As I noted, INTERSECTION's early scenes boast enough slickness and
craft to lend the illusion of consequence. The lead performances by
Gere, Stone and Davidovich are all understated, and Davidovich in
particular generates quite a bit of audience sympathy. Efficient
editing by Mark Warner and glossy photography by the talented Vilmos
Zsigmond create a dreamy atmosphere, and James Newton Howard's jazzy
score plays up the romance angle. The dialogue in the script by David
Rayfiel and Marshall Brickman is snappy, keeping conversations lively
enough to maintain interest.
It isn't all that long, however, before it becomes evident that
there isn't all that much going on beneath INTERSECTION's shiny
surface. The performers are "understated" primarily because there is
so little substance to any of the characters. Olivia is perky and
sweet, but it's never particularly clear why she's so into Vincent.
Sally, in the flashback sequences, is made to appear icy and reserved,
and one of those scenes is quite clever. Still, nothing in her
character seems to justify Vincent's behavior, and this may be
INTERSECTION's critical failing. Vincent never becomes a man facing a
real problem; he's just a jerk playing both ends against the middle.
It was impossible for me to work up any sympathy for a man who leaves
his wife without ever discussing his problems with his marriage, then
fires snide and jealous questions at her about a new boyfriend. To
make matters even worse, the resolution is a complete cop-out, allowing
Vincent somehow to make both women happy inadvertently. If it seems
like I was expecting a morality tale...well, by the time it was over, I
was.
But even those who allow Vincent more leeway than I did are likely
to be turned off by Mark Rydell's heavy handed direction. Gere's angst
ridden face is frequently in close-up, usually while driving; he
probably ends up playing as many scenes with a steering wheel as he
does with another actor. An antique clock becomes a distracting
SYMBOL, and the omnipresent Northwest rain an objective correlative I
could have done without. Frequent flashbacks and dream sequences make
for a dizzying narrative. So many stylistic choices in INTERSECTION
turned me off that I'm tempted not to mention the off-handed allusion
to the fact that Vincent's 13-year-old daughter has an eating
disorder.
Eh, why nitpick? Name it and it probably turned me off.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 mid-life crises: 3.
--
Scott Renshaw
Stanford University
Office of the General Counsel
berardinelli,james
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1994 James Berardinelli
Rating (Linear 0 to 10): 4.0
Date Released: 1/21/94
Running Length: 1:38
Rated: R (Mature themes, language, brief nudity, sex)
Starring: Richard Gere, Sharon Stone, Lolita Davidovich,
Jennifer Morrison, Martin Landau
Director: Mark Rydell
Producers: Bud Yorkin and Mark Rydell
Screenplay: David Rayfiel and Marshall Brickman based on the film
LES CHOSES DE LA VIE by Claude Sautet
Music: James Newton Howard
Released by Paramount Pictures
The meeting of two fateful roads isn't the only intersection dealt
with in this movie. There are also four lives and two loves,
hopelessly entwined and inseparably crisscrossed in a web of emotion.
And there's the past, present, and future, all coming together at one
explosive moment. Too bad that INTERSECTION isn't a silent movie,
because the concept sounds reasonable until the characters start
reciting some truly dumb dialogue.
Vincent Eastman (Richard Gere) works with his wife Sally (Sharon
Stone) and lives with his mistress Olivia Marshak (Lolita Davidovich).
Torn between the two--the cool, rational Sally and the wild,
tempestuous Olivia--and the different lives they represent, he's
unable to commit to either. The only one to whom Vincent is able to
give his unconditional love is his daughter Meaghan (Jennifer
Morrison). Yet, as he begins to untangle his relationships, a stalled
van and a rain-slickened highway take the course of the future beyond
his control.
INTERSECTION is told non-linearly, with numerous flashbacks and
one critical flash-forward. In scene after scene, the present-day
circumstances of Vincent are revealed, along with key incidents that
contributed to the situation: his early relationship with his wife,
his first meeting with his mistress, his decision to leave Sally, and
the an awkward luncheon between Olivia and Meaghan. When Vincent's
highway accident occurs, we are supposed to know him, so all that
remains is to see how the final act will be played out.
As intriguing as the premise might be, the execution is lacking in
several fundamental areas. Richard Gere is an actor of limited range,
and INTERSECTION's script demands too much from him. A similar
observation can be made regarding his two co-stars, as the performances
of Sharon Stone and Lolita Davidovich lack strength and consistency.
While Stone's character is supposed to be emotionally-reserved, the
actress gives a one-note portrayal that too often renders Sally
lifeless. Davidovich, on the other hand, overacts whenever a forceful
display of emotion is required.
Regardless of how the actors perform, there's little they can do
with the appalling dialogue scripted by writers David Rayfiel and
Marshall Brickman. This isn't a case of isolated lines sprinkled
throughout; nearly every scene is bursting with cliches and
melodramatic sentences that no real person would ever say. The actors'
delivery is the lesser part of the problem.
INTERSECTION frequently drags. This shouldn't be the case, since
the emotional dynamics inherent in this situation should give the movie
a momentum independent of its non-standard narrative style. That
doesn't happen, however, principally because too many of the flashbacks
aren't convincing or interesting. A prime example is the auction
meeting between Vincent and Olivia. More than any other sequence, this
one seems scripted and contrived.
Then there's the ending, which takes an interminable amount of
time to arrive. The last twenty minutes crawl by as we're treated bad
melodrama designed to bring tears to the eyes. Ironically, this part
of the movie is where Sharon Stone has her best scenes.
Likability of the characters is also a problem. Sally lives
beneath a cold, emotionless shell and rarely, if ever, courts the
audience's sympathy, while Vincent is the sort of self-absorbed person
that one wishes an accident upon. If there's a desire to feel sorry
for anyone, it's for Meaghan, the daughter of these two, yet she
appears surprisingly well-adjusted.
Those who like Richard Gere, Sharon Stone, and/or Lolita
Davidovich will find something to enjoy about INTERSECTION. The
presence of a favorite performer should be enough to eclipse numerous
faults. Everyone else, even those who generally enjoy teary
histrionics, will likely find this a trying experience. In more ways
than one, this particular love triangle is out-of-synch.
- James Berardinelli (bla...@cc.bellcore.com)
JON RIDGE
[Spoilers]
A film review by Jon Ridge
Copyright 1994 Jon Ridge
CAST: Richard Gere, Sharon Stone, Lolita Davidovich
DIRECTOR: Mark Rydell
WRITER: David Rayfiel, Marshall Brickman
PRODUCER: Bud Yorkin, Mark Rydell
SCORE: James Newton Howard
RELEASE: January 21, 1994
If someone had told me that a movie starring Richard Gere and
Sharon Stone as a married couple would be low-quality, boring, unsexy,
and incongruous in every way, I'd have laughed in his face. Know
what? INTERSECTION is everything I've just mentioned.
Gere stars as Vincent Eastman, a successful architect who runs a
joint business with wife Sherry, played by Sharon Stone. Vincent is
absolutely unhappy with his life and marriage, as he tells a friend,
"We weren't a family. We were a corporation with a daughter." It's
easy to see why Vincent would want to leave his wife for another woman,
the sensual red-head Olivia (played by Lolita Davidovich). He's
obviously very in love with his mistress; Vincent plans to build a new
home for them, get married, and have children soon thereafter. A
terrific beginning. A wonderful set-up.
We see Vincent driving along a slick road after a rain storm at
high speed, letter in hand, smiling. What about? Without giving too
much away, during the opening moments of the film, Gere's character has
made an important decision regarding what he's going to do with the
rest of his life. He's on his way in that direction when he slams on
the brakes and plows into three different cars before tumbling his own
vehicle off the side of the road.
That's the story. That and that only. What fills the remaining
eighty minutes of the film is flashbacks, lots of them. We see Gere
with his wife at home and in the office. We see Gere with his
daughter, Gere with work associates, and Gere with his mistress.
Flashbacks and flashbacks. Flashbacks intertwined and within one
another. After a while it's difficult to tell whether or not anything
is actually happening at the time we are watching, in the present. And
it's even more difficult to give a damn. This is one hell of a
free-form movie. That's fine, if that's the way you want to go with
the material, so long as you weed out the unnecessary from the... well,
in the case of this film... not-so unnecessary. Give it all some
meaning, at least. That's what I would have done, anyway.
Unfortunately I wasn't in charge of production.
I would like to say that INTERSECTION is about the memories of a
dying man; the memories of him and the woman he truly loves, and why he
wants to be with her and her alone. I can't say it. Even when we're
sure he loves her, we aren't quite positive. I'd love to say that this
movie will entertain you in some fashion, but I can't. What I can say
of INTERSECTION is that it was almost a complete waste of my time.
Anything else I could say would be a waste of yours.
Rated R
Running time (1:38m)
CRITICAL RATING: *