Conference bookie::movies

230.0. "Seance on a Wet Afternoon" by DSSDEV::RUST () Fri Jun 25 1993 12:47

    I caught one of my favorite feel-bad movies on channel 68 last night:
    "Seance on a Rainy Afternoon". [Or is it "Wet Afternoon"? They say the
    memory is the first thing to go, but I've forgotten where it went.]
    
    Anyway, this is a dark little psychodrama featuring a marvelous
    performance by Kim Stanley as a medium who comes up with a plan to gain
    herself some credibility and fame by solving a kidnapping - the
    solution to be simplified by her having done the deed herself [with the
    help of her devoted husband, a very young Richard Attenborough].
    The woman is clearly halfway around the bend to begin with, and things
    rapidly get worse, but the kicker to me isn't her deeds so much as her
    character - she's one of those aggressively clinging people who
    cheerfully walk all over anyone who will let them, and who turn in a
    flash to a cowering heap whenever they get yelled at. [As it turns out,
    there's an incident in her past that could well explain much of this,
    but by that time I'm afraid there wasn't much room for sympathy.]
    Stanley plays her wonderfully, which means that nearly every word she
    says grates on me; Attenborough also does a fine job as the loving
    husband who's too easily talked into things; and there are several fine
    supporting performances as well (including Patrick Magee, whom I
    recognized as having played the Marquis de Sade in "Marat/Sade").
    
    I found out the picture was directed by the man who did "King Rat"
    (another all-time feel-bad movie), along with a grab-bag of other
    flicks fair and foul ("International Velvet" was on his list as well;
    talk about contrasts). Anyway, this particular film is a dandy, moody
    and claustrophobic and tense; highly recommended. [Best watched on a
    rainy afternoon with lots of comfort food at hand.]
    
    -b

    I believe it is "wet" not "rainy" in the title.
    
    Richard

    One of my all-time favorites.   Definitely a hot-chocolate-snuggled-up-
    on-the-couch-on-a-drear-fall-afternoon movie.