Mercy (2000)

(the spoiler bit is only in the last paragraph)Be warned, if you're scouting for a hot title, this one is just too much of a cold fish to be anything like that, or if you're scouting for a dark title, this one is too mild to be anything like that either. Good performance by Ellen Barkin, but if you carry an erotic torch for her, go to the sea, the SEA OF LOVE, ah, those were the days. Peta Wilson? I was, upon first sight, disappointed, but, yeah, she is something to see, especially as the film progresses. She's a very complicated character though. So any fun? Quite frankly, few and far between, with lotsa yuck getting into the way. And it's kinda dorky yuck, cause convincing it's not, the dead bodies are clearly prop department works of 'art.'Getting slapped with a wet fish through the face, that's what this creepy movie is. I don't mean creepy in a shivery way. I mean creepy as in yuck. Corpses galore. Naked corpses. Bloodied naked corpses. Close-ups of bloodied naked corpses. This movie caters to the vulture mindset.Quite distasteful, leaves a bad taste, though well-filmed. Unsettling story-line is not what I am referring to. Plot holes and lots left unexplained.A dark psychological thriller loaded with psychobabble, inane Freudian ramblings that has never held any water but is being devoured like sweet-cakes at a church fair, because it tells people what they want to hear. In the World as it is, we are all very, very different, and no one damn universal truth exists. We are all very strange bunnies, so damn the case files, just because Person A acted like this ten decades ago, doesn't mean everybody is going to follow suit, but there is a whole industry of psychologists who can afford to live life up high in their own ivory towers charging rent to other people's castles up there in the sky. Much of the motivation doesn't even make sense, for instance, the sniper scenes, I fail to understand, obviously because it is just a bunch of junk.I originally saw the downloaded trailer and figured it to be a good bet. Well, it's kinda really really a letdown in many, I'd say, most ways. Visually not nearly as exciting as it promised to be. Wallowing about in stupid badly-presented psychological disorders. The swimming pool scene was well done, however. Danielle Marie Straub, no speaking part, unforgettable in her aquamarine bathing suit, the very symbol of innocence, plays the molested child with a dismayed questioning expression that speaks volumes.It was an expensive purchase for me. All well and fine if you can see it for the price of a rental, or on cable, whatever you guys do, but I went the whole hog.Now, the spoilers:Julian Sands. Getting eaten alive. Yells out campy-voiced. Oh go home man! Karen Young, who is quite good at times, is absolutely inadequate in that crucial scene where she approaches drag- outfitted Dr. Broussard. That has the feel of a first attempt. And what a monumental waste writing Peta Wilson out of proceedings long before the end. Some unforgivable mistakes.

OK, I liked this movie but it was missing some hot kinky action in the shower scene with Julian Sands and Beau Starr?It certainly had enough lesbian action, and I know we had the full frontal as Lt. Fritch gets out of the shower -- but c'mon, with all that pool lesbian stuff going on earlier, the overt references to gay activity between the two earlier in the film during the 'staged' scene in the police precinct -- don't you think there could have been some "demands" made on Lt. Fritch when he got out of the shower there? or, better yet, they could have done it in the shower with the door all steam (might have been tasteful-- not that there was anything tasteful about this movie). I'm just saying-- there were all those "elbo grease" references to the Lt.'s homosexuality throughout the script -- you'd think in a grotesquely sexual movie like this they would have had a little bit to balance it out some.

Very slow, plodding movie with a confusing story line. The movie's only hope of keeping the audience interested is the gratuitous nudity thrown in at regular intervals. Ellen Barkin is miscast and her looks do not hold up when she is on screen with the much-younger Peta Wilson. Not sure what this movie was about.

One of the most visually appealing movies made in recent years, with a good dose of eroticism, to boot. But somewhat unpleasant theme, so enjoy the visuals!Peta Wilson may be the sexiest actress playing in movies today! (and Ellen Barkin is no slouch in the sexiness department herself).