My review was written in April 1990 after a Midtown Manhattan screening.
Theresa Russell gives a solid performance in Sondra Locke's well-directed film noir "Impulse", but script deficiencies make this a weak box office entry.
The third major cop film this year with a prominent woman's role (after Jamie Lee Curtis in "Blue Steel" and Laurie Metcalf's supporting part in "Internal Affairs"), "Impulse" continues the prevailing themes (since "Sea of Lover") of paranoia and insecure, self-divided characters among the men and women in blue.
Russell is cast as a beautiful undercover cop whose life is going nowhere, hence the title. She would like to break out of her rt and act on impulse like one of the prostitute or druggie personas she routinely adopts in her work.
Along with her sexist boss George Dzundza, she's assigned to work with young assistant district attorney Jef Fahey to find missing witness Shawn Elliott in an important gangster case. Elliott has $900,000 stolen in a Colombian drug deal, and there's only three weeks to find him before Fahey begins the trial. Complicating matters is Fahey' other key witness, Eli Danker, who is antsy and afraid to testify without Elliott's corroboration.
Scripters John De Marco and Leigh Chapman keep the pot boiling and flesh out the three main characters adequately until a crucial scene 55 minutes into the pic. On her way home after a tough assignment, Rusell gets a flat tire and impulsively goes to a bar and is picked up by none other than Elliott (whose mug she hasn't been shown by her superiors).
Key plot element that he lets herself go with this guy is believable and well-developed, but all other details here ring false. The contrived script has Dzundza pointedly taking away her gun (it's not police issue) in the immediately previous scene since, scripting backward, she can't have one in the scene that follows. Her not knowing what Elliott looks like is a ridiculous but equally necessary gimmick.
Elliott is murdered while Russell freshens up at his pad. She covers up the evidence, afraid of being accused of the killing, but phones in a tip that the murder has taken place.
Film never recovers from the rapid piling-on of coincidences here, a basic misunderstanding of the premise that Russell's character is free to act randomly but that her screen universe must remain logical and consistent.
Just like the Kevin Costner thriller "No Way Out" (in which Dzundza also co-starred), some suspense is generated by an identikit drawing of the mystery woman who witnessed Elliott's murder -the viewer recognizes it as Russell but Dzundza and Fahey take longer to tumble to the fact.
Next twist is pretty good: Fahey has Russell pose as the mystery witness in order to flush out Elliott's killer, but by this time he knows that she is the witness (but didn't see the killer's face, yet another hokey contivance). Revelation of the killer's identity is a nice surprise that plays fair with the audience.
Russell and Fahey have some interesting exchanges that expose their characters, but there are too many prefacing sentiments, with "What if I told you that..." yielding unintentionally risible results. Sharpest writing comes in a scene of Fahey and his partner Alan Rosenberg talking about women and relationships in terms from real estate-"curb appeal" and "depreciating".
Director Locke, in her second feature after "Ratboy", gets high marks for the visceral, swift nature of her violent stagings. She also manages an impressively tactile sex scene that involves Russell and Fahey.
Russell is terrific in suggesting her character's insecurities after several failed romances, and pic benefits from a smooth performance by Lynne Thigpen as her shrink. Fahey, soon to be seen co-starring in Clint Eastwood's "White Hunter, Black Heart", is a handsome, effective foil, and Dzundza almost makes one believe his ambiguously corrupt persona.
Aussie lenser Dean Semler maintains a murky look befitting the protagonists' dark motives. Michael Colombier's moody score is a plus.
Theresa Russell gives a solid performance in Sondra Locke's well-directed film noir "Impulse", but script deficiencies make this a weak box office entry.
The third major cop film this year with a prominent woman's role (after Jamie Lee Curtis in "Blue Steel" and Laurie Metcalf's supporting part in "Internal Affairs"), "Impulse" continues the prevailing themes (since "Sea of Lover") of paranoia and insecure, self-divided characters among the men and women in blue.
Russell is cast as a beautiful undercover cop whose life is going nowhere, hence the title. She would like to break out of her rt and act on impulse like one of the prostitute or druggie personas she routinely adopts in her work.
Along with her sexist boss George Dzundza, she's assigned to work with young assistant district attorney Jef Fahey to find missing witness Shawn Elliott in an important gangster case. Elliott has $900,000 stolen in a Colombian drug deal, and there's only three weeks to find him before Fahey begins the trial. Complicating matters is Fahey' other key witness, Eli Danker, who is antsy and afraid to testify without Elliott's corroboration.
Scripters John De Marco and Leigh Chapman keep the pot boiling and flesh out the three main characters adequately until a crucial scene 55 minutes into the pic. On her way home after a tough assignment, Rusell gets a flat tire and impulsively goes to a bar and is picked up by none other than Elliott (whose mug she hasn't been shown by her superiors).
Key plot element that he lets herself go with this guy is believable and well-developed, but all other details here ring false. The contrived script has Dzundza pointedly taking away her gun (it's not police issue) in the immediately previous scene since, scripting backward, she can't have one in the scene that follows. Her not knowing what Elliott looks like is a ridiculous but equally necessary gimmick.
Elliott is murdered while Russell freshens up at his pad. She covers up the evidence, afraid of being accused of the killing, but phones in a tip that the murder has taken place.
Film never recovers from the rapid piling-on of coincidences here, a basic misunderstanding of the premise that Russell's character is free to act randomly but that her screen universe must remain logical and consistent.
Just like the Kevin Costner thriller "No Way Out" (in which Dzundza also co-starred), some suspense is generated by an identikit drawing of the mystery woman who witnessed Elliott's murder -the viewer recognizes it as Russell but Dzundza and Fahey take longer to tumble to the fact.
Next twist is pretty good: Fahey has Russell pose as the mystery witness in order to flush out Elliott's killer, but by this time he knows that she is the witness (but didn't see the killer's face, yet another hokey contivance). Revelation of the killer's identity is a nice surprise that plays fair with the audience.
Russell and Fahey have some interesting exchanges that expose their characters, but there are too many prefacing sentiments, with "What if I told you that..." yielding unintentionally risible results. Sharpest writing comes in a scene of Fahey and his partner Alan Rosenberg talking about women and relationships in terms from real estate-"curb appeal" and "depreciating".
Director Locke, in her second feature after "Ratboy", gets high marks for the visceral, swift nature of her violent stagings. She also manages an impressively tactile sex scene that involves Russell and Fahey.
Russell is terrific in suggesting her character's insecurities after several failed romances, and pic benefits from a smooth performance by Lynne Thigpen as her shrink. Fahey, soon to be seen co-starring in Clint Eastwood's "White Hunter, Black Heart", is a handsome, effective foil, and Dzundza almost makes one believe his ambiguously corrupt persona.
Aussie lenser Dean Semler maintains a murky look befitting the protagonists' dark motives. Michael Colombier's moody score is a plus.