Almost Too Stupid For Words

  Stop! Please Stop!

Still of The Night (1982) – The murder of psychiatrist’s patient leads him to the depths of the antiques world, and the arms of a mysterious woman who might be the murderer.

Directed by Robert Benton                      Starring Roy Scheider, Meryl Streep, Jessica Tandy

Why I Liked It: …………………………..(No, this is not a mistake.  I just can’t)

Here’s another in the category of-“How could this movie be this awful?”  Director Benton and star Streep are just coming off their Academy Award wins for “Kramer vs. Kramer”.  Roy Scheider is a fine actor (and one I enjoy), Streep is one of, if not THE, greatest American actress of her generation.  She should be included in any discussion of greatest actor PERIOD.  The story is pretty promising.  There are nods to noir, and Hitchcock. So sex, mystery and suspense, right?  Well, about that last one…

No, before I get there, let’s touch on a few other ideas.  The plot of this story is classic, almost impossible to screw up.  A violent death, a beautiful blonde who appears at the door in distress, a man with mysteries woven through all aspects of his life, betrayal, and a main character driven to extremes.  I mean, you and I could sit down with a six pack of our favorite beverages and pound a script in a weekend.  Without making any claims to how great it would be, at least it would make sense.

Which brings us back to that last topic a paragraph back.  There is NO suspense in this movie.  There’s damn little SENSE to this movie.  Benton tried to play down the “tribute to Alfred Hitchcock” comments made when the movie debuted.  That’s hard because there are nods to multiple films by the movie icon throughout the movie.  Starting with Meryl Streep’s distantly alluring platinum blonde character.  Neither of the leads radiate any idea of who these characters are.  He’s confused, and she, if I’m being honest, is red-flags-all-over-get-the-hell-out-of-here, scary weird.  Why a psychiatrist would fall for her (yes, she’s beautiful.  And deeply scary) is beyond me.  By far the most interesting character is the murder victim, played by Josef Sommer.  George Bynum is creepy, with a strange fixation on his shrink.  Add in he is a sexual predator and we’re talking about a character with some meat to him!  He dies in the first five minutes of the movie, so we only see him in flashbacks.  There is zero chemistry between the leads, so the passion scenes fall flat.  A variety of false scents are run by us about who killed crazy George, only to have the answer hit the screen like a bird dropping hitting your windshield.

Splat!

This one had everything going for it, and delivered on none. Call it a “If you have ABSOLUTELY nothing else to do one afternoon” kind of movie.  Put it this way, Meryl Streep was once asked if she had ever regretted making a movie.  This is the movie she named.

Rating – ** Not Impressed