Intersection (1994)

I'm not quite sure what this movie's about. I'm not saying that I suspect that I missed some deep, subtle secret concealed within the narrative that only a select few will ever grasp (this, I assume, is true of the alleged comedy that I've missed in various 'comedic' films) -- rather, I'm just not entirely sure that this film delivers what it might have had it had a more coherent flow and some semblance of actually going anywhere. Not that that sentence that I just penned is a great example of those qualities, but I digress...

The movie features fine performances from all involved, including Lolia Davidovich and Sharon Stone and the pretty-much-always excellent Richard Gere. Gere's character is convincing and real, but perhaps a tad too real because he's a pretty wishy-washy fellow and his is not the most compelling of roles. Then again, neither is anyone else's, really. The two female leads get marginally more to wrap their skills around, but the whole is way less than the sum of its parts.

A 98-minute film, "Intersection" seems a lot longer and I found myself calculating time-elapsed and time-remaining at more than one point. Hardly a good sign. Sure, there are no Ramboesque explosions and car chases (though a high-speed driving theme is at the movie's heart) but I'm not the type of male who has to have that kind of thing to keep me engaged. A story might be nice, though. I mean, a story that hangs together. In the absence of much direction, and in the presence of multiple and confusing layers of flashback, the actors' great work is sabotaged. It just doesn't really seem to go anywhere.

When the film finished I felt the sentiment echoed in that old Peggy Lee song..."Is that all there is?" And I don't like Peggy Lee, darn it!