1/2 * directed by ( sir ) peter hall . written by lewis green & jordan rush . photography , elemer ragalyi . editing , roberto silvi . production design , linda del rosario & richard paris . music , pino donaggio . cast : rebecca de mornay ( sarah taylor ) , antonio banderas ( tony ramirez ) , dennis miller ( cliff raddison ) , len cariou ( henry taylor ) , beau starr , tim kelleher , eugene lipinski , philip jarrett , and harry dean stanton as " max cheski . " distributed by tri-star . 96 minutes . rated r ( violence , language , sex ) the latest antonio banderas movie of the week was helmed by respected stage director peter hall ( knighted in 1977 ) . between 1967 and 1974 , sir peter also directed six films , mostly adaptations of plays and mostly unpraised . the writers of never talk to strangers are not movie celebrities either , although jordan rush must be a favorite son in carbondale , illinois , since he graduated from southern illinois university . there is also another , more tenuous illinois connection . this movie's hungarian cinematographer has shot several american films , including the 1990 journey of hope ( oscar for best foreign film ) , which was co-produced by university of illinois alumnus bill hartman . all those tie-ins however do not make a movie worth watching . it starts fairly promisingly as bright criminal psychologist sarah ( rebecca de mornay ) has another one of her sessions in jail with accused serial killer max ( harry dean stanton ) . character actor stanton is always good and has , in fact , improved a lot of films with his presence . here he claims that he suffers from multiple personality disorder , so that other selves are guilty . ergo , i , max , am innocent . we also meet sarah's womanizer pal dennis miller , with whom she once slept ( she was drunk then ) . he then moved into her building , but now sarah gently rejects his advances . as a stand-up practitioner , actor and talk show host , miller is too coarse , questionable and smug . he is in character here as he points out to sarah that he is not after an involvement but only after sex . ( his succinct , explicit phrasing was unprintable in the main paper i write for . but for the censorless internet it was : " i just want to fuck . " ) sarah also has somewhere a boy-friend who once day disappeared . she and puerto rican biker tony ( banderas ) meet cute at a liquor store , where tattooed tony discourses like a connoisseur of fine wines . this is one of the many mistakes of the film , since he looks as though he should be drinking out of a paper bag . in quick succession , sarah goes to his pad for wine-tasting , which means immediate , vigorous sex . later the two reluctantly exchange information about themselves . tony works in surveillance , electronic and otherwise . soon the plot thickens to impenetrability . sarah is visited by her estranged and--it's hinted broadly--once abusive father . her off-on relationship with tony goes with incrementally kinky sex . it is uninteresting , even though the bodies are in fine shape and miss de mornay is not siliconed . sarah receives a gift package of dead flowers , then another with her dead cat . later she reads her own obituary in the paper . the audience is theoretically supposed to suspect everyone , including max who was released for lack of evidence . but the audience doesn't give a hoot . intermittently suspecting tony , sarah engages a shabby private investigator . now the surveillance man is under surveillance , on the " set a thief to catch a thief " principle--while hitchcock is crying in movie heaven . sarah learns that tony is lying about his trips . there's an attempt on her life via an electric heater that is hangs loosely right over her bathtub and is magically supposed to fall and electrocute her at the right moment ! that's about the only electricity in the film , since there is none between de mornay and banderas . instead , this awfully plotted picture throws our way a shipload of red herrings as it gets exponentially incoherent , improbable , impossible , unclear , dull , uninvolving and stupid . it uses a plethora of flashbacks and/or visions . the parts don't join or hold together . the proverbial " holes so big that you can drive a truck through " are here fit for locomotives . the production values are good , with slick-and-somber camerawork . there is an overabundance of shots from various angles that stress enclosed spaces or suggest partitions such as freight elevator bars , railings and the like , all heavily symbolic of cages , jails and separations . the film is a waste of everything and everyone , especially old reliable harry dean stanton , whom we see too little of . it was dumb of the plot to have had him released from jail . it was even dumber to have had this movie released . 
