Raising Cain (1992)

Directed by Brian De Palma. Starring John Lithgow, Lolita Davidovich, Steven Bauer, Frances Sternhagen, Gregg Henry, Tom Bower, Mel Harris, Teri Austin, Gabrielle Carteris, Amanda Pombo. [R]

After the disaster of Bonfire of the Vanities, director De Palma returns to the cold comforts of his old reliable—high-style psychodramas in the garb of melodramatic sex-and-murder suspensers. Lithgow tackles about a half-dozen character personalities, most of them housed within the same body: that of a crazed child psychologist with an unhealthy obsession toward his young daughter. Wife Davidovich notices the fixation, too, but that doesn’t stop her from cheating on him with an ex-lover (Bauer), who would make for a great suspect if Lithgow can find a way to frame him for the murders he’s committing…but which side of his personality is committing them? Takes the less-favored approach of using the maniac’s point of view more often than not, inspiring some measure of pity and suspense in his antics; one key scene even quotes a sequence from Psycho where the audience to that picture is temporarily concerned for the welfare of Norman Bates. But the plot—when it even bothers trying to make sense—is undernourished by flimsy construction and muddled motivations. By the end, it no longer even matters why the dissociated doc is doing what he’s doing, or which side of his personality is doing it. Subjective viewpoint allows Lithgow to carry on conversations with “himself” as another person in the room, and the actor doesn’t shy away from the opportunity to go for broke as a grand ham. Produced by De Palma’s then-wife, Gale Ann Hurd.

49/100