AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

SnoopyStyle Cynthia Kellogg (Demi Moore) voluntarily comes in to give evidence about the case of James Urbanski (Bruce Willis) to police detectives John Woods (Harvey Keitel) and Linda Nealon. She describes the relationship between the brash James and his combative wife Joyce (Glenne Headly). Cynthia and Joyce are best friends working as hairdressers. The trio goes to a carnival and James ends up dead. Cynthia wants to call the cops but Joyce insists on covering it up. Cynthia tells her husband Artie (John Pankow).The main problem for me is that I don't believe Cynthia from the first moment she opens her mouth. With Bruce Willis playing James so broadly and the detectives challenging her story constantly, it adds up to an unreliable story teller. That happens a lot in good narratives if it's handled right. By the thirty minutes mark, James is already dead and I'm ready for the next version of the story. That's how this movie should have gone. The detectives can interview someone else and the characters within the story become different while adding to the story. Instead, the story keeps following Cynthia and I don't believe anything on the screen.

gcd70 Fairly routine mystery/drama about a young woman who comes forward voluntarily to tell of how she helped cover up the murder of a friend's husband.Alan Rudolph's film works thanks to a reasonable plot (the very alert may pick this), simple yet sensible construction and solid performances from Demi Moore, Glenne Headley, Bruce Willis and that growing Hollywood talent, Harvey Keitel.The narrative may never enthrall you, yet "Mortal Thoughts" remains interesting enough to keep you watching. Hardly fantastic, but over all this is not bad.Tuesday, November 2, 1993 - Video

topcat-1 I'm not a big fan of the genre but this one is very well done. The flashback technique works beautifully. The acting is good by Headly, an awesome actress who should be A-list by now. Willis, who is a bit underrated because of the action blockbusters but does comedy well, is pretty believable here in a stereotypical type character that he manages to get something more out of than your average actor. Keitel is marvelous and you have to appreciate the nuances he brings out as the pro that he is. John Pankow is good and should be working more than he is. Moore has the largest role and as usual, she's the weakest actor, but decent enough to carry off the role. The story is riveting; you always can't wait to see what happens next. The touches of humor are really funny and come naturally from the characters and situations rather than being jokes. The plot has plenty of twists. The ending, while a little unsatisfying to me, does leave it up to the viewer to make the moral decisions. If you like suspense movies and great acting, you'll love this and even if you don't, you'll enjoy it anyway.

Keith F. Hatcher `Mortal Thoughts' is another of those films which I nearly did not see, not because of any forgetfulness on my part, nor from any other involuntary reason, but quite frankly I tend to avoid any film with people like Bruce Willis (you can put in the names of Lundgren/van Damme/Stallone/Bruce Lee and other assorted muscular brainless types at your leisure) playing the big macho he-man; I'd rather have a try at cards on the computer, even though the two of clubs always goes missing when I most need it. As well as that, the title did not seem very inspiring. I mean, just how many films are there with the word `mortal' in them? I will tell you: just over 200 including video films etc. according to IMDb's incredible search facility.As luck would have it, firstly there was not anything else on to while away a couple of relaxing hours, and secondly a few well-written commentaries from other IMDb users (I do not take any notice of badly-written commentaries, though of course I do take into account those little mistakes that creep in to commentaries written by people whose mother-tongue is not English) suggested that I was about to see a perfectly acceptable film.How right they were, I am glad to say. If on the one hand Bruce Willis' participation is somewhat limited and what he did was really quite decent, on the other, a very young-looking Demi Moore (29 when she made the film) played a stirring rôle, which helped to put this thriller drama a head above most of similar ilk.Alan Rudolph's directing of a well-written script produced a more than acceptable result, aided by those timely flash-backs between the interrogation and previous events. The formula was intelligently employed, such that at no time did you feel you were getting lost anywhere along the line - as so often happens in other films trying to use the flash-back/flash-forward method. Cynthia (Demi Moore) is `helping police enquiries', which means interrogated, into the death of her best friend's husband (Bruce Willis), and as she recounts events, the film flashes back, at times even synchronising with the dialogues in the interrogation. A handy device, which lent much to the coherence and continuity. Good work here by Demi Moore and Glenne Headly as her best friend, and it was real good to see Harvey Keitel as the detective (see him in `Shadrach' (1998) (qv), Ridley Scott's classic `Thelma and Louise' (1991) and in `The Piano' (1993), to name a few of his best rôles. As in all films of this genre, there is that plot twist in the denouement, but in this case perhaps it misfires a little: it left me with a slight taste of incoherence after all that had happened. It left too many incognitos floating about. Perhaps the idea was not too well thought out, or perhaps I was left with the two of clubs and nowhere to put it...... Maybe I am being a little unjust, or pedantic, as the film is worth your while with some interesting interpretations from all concerned.Just about 6 out of ten on my scale, or a couple of decimals higher.