SPOILERS THROUGHOUT POST: Rich Man's Wife, starring Halle Berry, has one major flaw that I saw and that is to take out all the things that make psychological thrillers great and put in all the things that make them problematic. As such, this movie let me down many times throughout.
As thrillers go, this one actually starts OK. In fact the cinematography is great and the story is at first interesting. But the movie goes nowhere. Everything that's bad in psychological thrillers appears(car chases, chases on foot, ominous music, violence, characters who just seem like caricatures, plot holes that are absolutely unexplainable, and much much more). It's all here in The Rich Man's wife. The Movie does not leave any of these things out. Throw in characters who seem to make bad decision upon bad decision solely for the purpose of making a movie and one has The Rich Man's wife.
Now I'm not sure if it's the writer to fault-because most of the bad things seem like standard stuff thrown into lots of bad movies. What's frustrating about this one though, is that it starts halfway interesting. I'll admit it doesn't stay that way for long but still..
I will also say I am not quite sure this wasn't meant to be a parody. There are just to many things that don't make sense in any other context but parody. For example, how each and EVERY character seems to be a caricature. We get the raging psychopath (played quite well actually by Peter Greene.) The cops who seem to be in another world altogether, the hysterical put upon heiress(Berry who is never quite convincing here) and a few more . This movie had me rolling my eyes in quite a short period of time, such as when Cole chases Josie into her cabin and she, screaming and shrieking as she runs for her life, then proceeds to leaves the door open for Cole to follow her into the cabin.
The Rich Man's wife had a great cast but doesn't seem to care if the audience buys any of what is happening on screen. If it's purpose is just to entertain fine but to do that more effectively, it should have dropped some of the clichés and melodrama.
If I find out this was meant to be a comedy I will change my vote from 3 to 6 or maybe even 7. But as of right now, my vote stands at three. The main positives were the fact it really didn't bore all that much, AND Clea Lewis as the bitter ex wife of Josie's lover. She was so funny! What a great performance. It's almost worth it to see the movie just for her.
Rich Man's wife also almost crosses into that "so bad it's good" category. But it doesn't quite make it. It had to much potential to go in to many really interesting directions. Some of the characters' dialog were as over the top as the plot twists. Also, Halle's hysteria got a bit tiresome after awhile, though she's a great actress I am a bit tired of her always playing roles where she's hysterical. All the scenes of Josie running for her life-oh man, I think I started to lose count.
And I will agree with so many others-the "twist" is completely over the top, a complete rip off from Usual suspects and, rather then thinking "Clever movie" at the end, as with suspects, one just feels a bit ripped off. The "twist" changes the meaning of virtually everything and makes every scene in the movie meaningless, one has no idea what the real story is and it's completely unnecessary because that twist, as with many other, (actually most) things in the movie, is just one more letdown. (I also think this movie had a bit of "Mortal Thoughts" in it as well as Suspects.) So while I wasn't bored, loved the cast, and thought the premise had potential I am giving this a 3. But I am still not convinced this wasn't, at least in part a parody.Anyway, not the worst but could have been better.
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