More like ridiculously overwrought than intense. It´s amazing how low Roeg fell with this one compared to his 1970´s stuff - most jarringly, the editing rhythms and strategies that used to work so sublimely in Don´t Look Now or The Man Who Fell To Earth, only serve to make the film seem incoherent without adding anything of substance (the first 15-20 minutes in particular are one helluva mess). Feels like Roeg was just complicating things for the sake of it instead of communicating a well worked out vision, never getting a particularly firm handle on things. It also suffers from poor character development as, despite numerous expository rants, the motivations behind the characters´ actions remain unconvincing - even Hackman fails to invest Jack McCann with the necessary amount of truth and bring him to life as a real, three-dimensional person. Of course, it woulda been a wonder if he ´had´ achieved that because the dialogue given to him as well as others, is terribly awkward, stilted and kinda silly for the better part of the picture. And what the hell´s with the terribly solemn and ponderous tone the film has? Where did the understated grace of his earlier work disappear? And then there´re these self consciously and provocatively in-your-face scenes of nudity and orgies. And there´s the final act that offers just about the worst courtroom scene ever filmed, so ludicrous and cheesy it really has to be seen to be believed. In short, there aren´t too many things in this film that actually worked (well, I guess it does present numerous artful shots of beautiful scenery). I´m sure something compelling could have been made of this material, but this one´s an utter - if sometimes interesting - failure. In fact, it kinda reminded me of some f-cked up dreck Argento used to make around the same time.
Seems what they´ve always been saying about Roeg completely having lost his touch after 1980, is unfortunately true.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
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