A different way of telling a story

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

When I was an editor I was hired to create a promo for a film distributing convention for "A Woman Undone". What was most enjoyable about the job was that I could use any background music I wanted because the finished product would not be seen by any paying customers. I chose music by Bernard Herrmann written for a 1971 British film, The Night Digger. I was very proud of my final product. I feel that I made the Showtime film intriguing and suspenseful when it may have not been. A bit of trivia is that One of the actresses, Georgann Johnson went to school with my mother, Marjorie Talle.Dean Peter Merriman.

Interesting lead actors and their characters were involving enough to make me stick it out to the end of this so-so film. Sam Elliott played the only likable character. He's solid as the lawyer in here.Mary McDonnell, famous for playing "Stands With A Fist" in "Dances With Wolves," plays a cheating wife and Randy Quaid, usually a comedian, is anything but here, playing an abusive husband.Most of the story is told in flashback after Quaid is killed fairly early on. It's kind of a soap opera at times but kept my interest going just to see what would happen to McDonell's character, "Teri Hansen."

Teri Hanson(Mary McDonnel)is definitely undone. Teri and Allan Hanson(Randy Quaid) have just moved to California to make a new start and to try and save their failing marriage. Allan is really angry and abusive. Teri is very lonely and she meets Jim Mercer(Benjamin Bratt), a life guard at the pool where she swims. Now Jim is a gorgeous, be-still-my-heart man. He is a gigolo though. Soon things heat up. The story twists and turns from there through out the movie. (Sam Shepard is a handsome lawyer, who's wife has died recently.) It's an okay movie. The twist at the end leaves you with your jaw on the floor and some unanswered questions. I would watch it just for that reason.If you are a Benjamin Bratt fan, you have to see it just cause he is drool worthy as the sleazy lover. There are some steamy scenes between him and Mary McDonnel.

Very minor variations on the age old lovers triangle. There was a bit of hope, but uninspired writing provided cardboard, two-dimensional characters. Even Sam Elliott, who I usually enjoy, comes off flat. To me, the movie was in large part a waste of time UNTIL the last few minutes when a bit of an interesting twist on the ending was somewhat redemptive, moving my 2/10 to 4/10.