Woman Wanted

Premise: A Yale professor (Michael Moriarty) hires a woman (Helen Hunter) to care for his house and mind his estranged, adult, quasi-shut-in, poet son (Kiefer Sutherland). Both men fall in love with her, and she teaches them to love each other.

Alright, when I first read that title, I was a little concerned about what would follow. Worry ye not, no porn here. In fact, while sex is discussed and inferred, you never see any, so feel better now.

Back to the review: Have you ever eaten baking soda? I'm not suggesting that you all go try it, but I think that most of us have, having been children, eaten a great number of things that we shouldn't have (boiled potatoes among my many). In any case, baking soda gives you a revolting basic taste in your mouth that makes you run your teeth over your tongue in an effort to rid yourself of it.

And that taste was left in my mouth by this movie. To be honest, I don't really know what happened here. Sutherland originally directed the film, but, when he saw the "finished" product, he demanded that he not be credited because the movie was not what he wanted. He claims that something went horribly wrong in the editing room, and that all the scenes that tied the story together had been cut.

In this case, I am inclined to believe him. The plot is just plain nuts. I spent the majority of the time going, "what? what?!". Now, I know I do that a lot, but here it was well deserved. Sutherland's character is wildly anxious, Moriarty's overly lonely, and Hunter's just odd. I understand the motivation behind all their actions, but I feel it was poorly explained in the film. Also, the score made it come across like a Hallmark-made-for-TV-warm-fuzzy instead of the heart string tugging drama it could have been.

If it wasn't clear, this movie left a bad taste in my mouth. I do not recommend it. It is lacking. Lacking in style, in grace, in sense. Great performers, possibly great performances, lay in shreds on the editing room floor.