Track 29 ** (1988, Theresa Russell, Gary Oldman, Christopher Lloyd, Sarah Bernhard, Colleen Camp, Seymour Cassell) – Classic Movie Review 6617

Unexpectedly, playwright Dennis Potter and director Nicolas Roeg join up for this steamy and interesting but ultimately unsatisfying 1987 Oedipal fantasy mystery drama set in a quiet North Carolina town.

Theresa Russell stars as a frustrated wife who is ignored by her doctor husband Christopher (Lloyd) who would rather play with his model train set or engage in kinky games with his nurse (Sarah Bernhard).

But then into Russell’s life comes a sinister stranger, British hitchhiker Martin (Gary Oldman), who professes to be her son and wants to be on intimate terms with his mom again. Talk about sons and lovers! And then, we said it is an Oedipal fantasy, the son begins to hate the husband.

Though chock-a-block with psycho-sexual tension and bizarrely comic set-pieces, it all adds up to very little, and Roeg’s purposely ambiguous blend of fantasy and reality (that worked so well before in some of his films) just leaves the viewer frustrated and unconvinced.

Russell’s sexy performance holds it together, but Lloyd and Oldman are below par (though to be fair they have awkward roles to play) and Roeg travels boldly and adventurously, but seems on the wrong track.

Also in the cast are Colleen Camp, Seymour Cassell and Leon Rippy.

It is shot by Alex Thomson, produced by Rick McCallum, scored by Stanley Myers and designed by David Brockhurst.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6617

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