"The Turning"

A giz review

Ok...first of all, please keep in mind that I am The One who likes both "3" and "Ghost In The Machine"...and even parts of "Teso Dos Bichos"....

I liked this movie....definitely not Movie of the Year, but infinitly more watchable than some of DD's early artsy-fartsy ventures.

I didn't take notes, and I only had this on a ONE day Blockbuster rental, so bear with me, here....

This guy Cliff returns to his hometown after an unexplained four year absence to find his parents newly divorced,and what he thought of as his LIFE turned completly uside down. The entire movie is Cliff trying to recapture what is lost forever, everything from his family circle, to his teen sweetheart, sweetly portrayed by our "and introducing" GA (whom I strongly suspect is the ONLY reason this film was released to video) Michael Dolan is intensely focused as the troubled Cliff, and there are some good, tense scenes with him and his father's girlfriend, portrayed by Karen Allen. The climatic confrontation scene with him, her and his father, the Ronny Cox look-alike Raymond Barry, had me clenching my teeth with tension. There are also some interesting character moments with Cliff and his lost-in-the-sauce mother, subtly and believably played by Tess Harper, a much underused character actress.

Of course,the ONLY reason I, or you, would rent this movie is to see the young, inexperienced Gillian Anderson. Her April Cavanaugh is the typical small town girl, working for her father, the one love of her life gone...and now returned. The rose-bud beautiful GA gives an understated, and early-FACE filled, performance, very unScully, with a believably subtle southern accent. The much trash-tv ballyhooed NUDE SCENE is tastefully done and real, but much like the frontal nudity of the DD movie "New Year's Day", if you rent this movie only for the look-see, you are going to be sorely disappointed. Having watched this movie and the just-gizzed "Never Again" in the same three-hour period, I couldn't help but compare and parallel the pining woman-child April with the looking for SOMETHING more Scully--GA is compelling in both roles. Range?? Yes, kids.

I regret not the $3 one-day rental, nor the 101 minutes off-line that I invested in this movie. The latter, more so than the former, is my barometer for worthiness, in these,"the net is my life" days. Give it a look. But remember "Ghost in the Machine."

Submitted for your perusal by

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