Very well executed

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Good story and actors deliver fine entertainment in this movie drama. The movie moves at a steady pace unraveling along the way making the viewer wonder what would they do and why along with the characters. In the course of the story being told, interesting developments take place adding more viewer attraction. Worthy to note is the little diner and where it is located. Quiet diner, with traffic that does repairs and sells gas sustains itself if you work it. They apparently get greedy and work other things thus making one wonder what was the point? The idea of appreciating something after you lost it is introduced here not once but twice and you wonder why it took two times. Enter human nature and perhaps as many as 70 times for the many to come around if they have grace. In this movie, the characters ran out of that plus time and what was lost stays that way. Another interesting note. Watch how people who break the law try to live a normal life. But the question begs...How can they? Its not what you have but how you came to have it that all mankind has to answer for. In this movie, they show you how you can gain the whole world but lose your soul and is demonstrated very well. While the postman may ring twice to make sure you get your package....

The story of a drifter working on a by the road dinner, and the owner's wife, disenchanted with her marriage sets upon herself to seduce the drifter in the hopes of a more satisfying relationship.This is the base of the script, in which Jessica Lange and Jack Nicholson shine in their performances bringing different dimensions to their characters and, in true, bringing them to life.Frank Chambers (Jack Nicholson) is a bored drifter, with some jail time under his belt not looking for anything in particular. He gets enchanted by Cora (Jessica Lange) and ends up doing everything for them to be together.I think Jack Nicholson is an outstanding performer and it shows here some glimpses of what he will put in The Shining later on.I also particularly liked John P. Ryan in the small supporting role of Kennedy where we can see in him the double-stabbing typical that he will show in later roles.All in all it is a good movie, but I don't consider it as being erotic. Maybe for 1980's standards, but even so I doubt it.

While it is a well-made film on a technical level and all of the performances were excellent, there was a certain something missing from this remake that left me wanting. Based on the novel by James Cain, the story is about a drifter, Frank Chambers (Jack Nicholson), who visits a rural diner run by Nick Papadakis and his wife Cora (Jessica Lange). Frank and Cora begin an affair and then attempt to kill Cora's husband, but fail. In true film noir fashion, fate eventually gets its way and tragedy befalls the two lovers in an unexpected way. For me, the 1946 film adaptation starring John Garfield and Lana Turner stands as one of the best film noirs ever, and there was almost nothing this 1981 remake could have done to really live up to that. The only new or different thing this adaptation does is ramp up the sexual content and violence, and mixes them in a way that was kind of off-putting at times. Perhaps it was this way in Cain's novel, but the way in which sex and violence are intertwined in this film was more than a little disturbing. With that, and a slight adjustment to the ending (and of course, being in color), it hews fairly closely to the story as presented in the 1946 original. One might ask, "What was the point?" and you'd be perfectly justified in asking that. I have no idea what possessed them produce this remake, but for what it's worth it's not a bad film. However, if forced to choose between this and the 1946 version, I'd pick the 1946 version every time. This one was just a little too nihilistic and lacked emotional depth.

It is quite a lengthy exercise, be prepared, so that you can put all that time to good use. I had my whites on long cycle, rice in the steamer, managed to do all my overdue emails, pay the bills and still not miss a single turn in the plot. It is like NASCAR without the cars, a walking contest. Forget what other reviews say about steamy sex scenes, there is only one and unfortunately, while you can get off to Lange, it includes Nicholson (and just like that scene, the movie is all over the place and does not make any sense and you do wish you could cut Nicholson out of the picture). Thank dog I got my stuff done otherwise I would have regretted lost time. The book is 100 pages long which makes circa 1.22 minutes of screen time per page and this is the gripping part.