MovieChat Forums > Mercy (2000) Discussion > A Gem

A Gem

posted 11 years ago by dealey52
3 replies | jump to latest

Despite the corpse blinking in the opening scene, and all the bitching from the horn dogs that the sex scenes should have been longer, this movie is a gem that I discovered on my own. First time I've seen Peta Wilson (swoon) who did a good job and the always great Ellen Barkin. It's too bad because I think these two alpha females would have been good for each other. All in all a well made, well acted, well edited movie (well except for the blink). Need to get the cd to see if I missed anything, and then the book.

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Strings101 11 years ago

Peta Wilson was straining her acting chops hard to hold her own in scenes with the talented Ellen Barkin... and the effort showed a bit... but she got close enough. The dramatic intensity was achieved.

But the real "unspoken" leads here were Julian Sands (playing the UBER-creepy, evilly manipulative, cross-dressing shrink) and the yummy, but under-stated patient Karen Young (playing the convincingly vulnerable, and very fractured serial killer, Mary )... I mean that early scene, during therapy, when the "Dr." takes her back to her childhood abuse, that's VERY skilled and nuanced acting.

[–] tehck 10 years ago

I think that overall this is a very entertaining movie, but I can't agree on Julian Sands, who is routinely awful and doesn't do anything different here. He's like a very poor man's Jeremy Irons (himself usually dreadful), taking the parts David Warner probably passed on.