Susan Granger’s review of “PASSION OF MIND” (Paramount Classics)
After suffering the slings and arrows of “G.I. Jane,” “Striptease,” and “The Scarlet Letter,” it’s understandable why Demi Moore fled to the shelter of artsy, low-key European cinema. But this tepid drama, the first English-language film by Belgian director Alain Berliner (“My Vie en Rose”), is forgettable – at best. Written by Ron Bass and David Field, it’s about a woman with two lives. In one, she’s Marie, a widowed American book critic with two daughters, living lavishly in the south of France. Marie’s courted by a passionate, older writer (Stellan Skarsgard) to whom she once gave a bad review, although she observes, “You commit beautifully.” And, as her girl-friend notes, “He’s a chance to love again.” In a less idyllic but parallel universe, she’s Marty, a high-powered, hard-working Manhattan literary agent, courted by a shy, sensitive, erotic accountant (William Fichtner). In each life, she falls asleep and awakens as the other person and, in both worlds, she visits a psychiatrist who confirms that she’s, indeed, got delusionary problems. But at least, this time she keeps her clothes on. Marty’s consultant (Peter Riegert) bluntly observes that she’s “as mad as a hatter,” while Marie’s therapist (Joss Ackland) is more tactful, saying, “You are riding two horses, and the mind isn’t built for that.” Obviously, the concept is a ludicrous, heavy-handed metaphor about the choices facing contemporary women today, and Alain Berliner awkwardly tries to convince us that either world could be real. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Passion of Mind” is a sumptuous but shallow 4. With Demi Moore, more is less.
