Michael is a straight-flying young business kid who gets into a fight with a jealous boyfriend one night at a bar. Suddenly a mysterious stranger intervenes and saves him from a beating. The stranger disappears but later that night, while jogging, Michael bumps into him on a pier again (a foreshadowing of later events in the film).
Soon the stranger named Alex steps into Michael's life and turns it upside down, revealing himself as a sociopathic monster after it's too late.
If you think this plot summary sounds as if it has homosexual underlinings, perhaps it does. I mean for goodness sake what kind of grown man invites his hero to an underground club and lets him take control of his life? It's "Single White Female" with men. Maybe Alex and Michael love each other. I don't know. It seems like every film I've seen lately has been treating friendship as a sexual thing -- Freeman said "Shawshank" is about two men who love each other more than friends (which I disagree with), "Chasing Amy" was none too subtle and then we have all sorts of other films like this that imply some kind of homoerotic subtext. Frankly it's kind of grating, I miss those old films where two men were allowed to be close without being gay. ("Midnight Run", anyone?) This is kind of like "Unlawful Entry" meets "Fight Club," only it's worse than both. On one hand we've got really bad acting from Rob Lowe as a sociopath (please!) and James Spader doing another dork impression. (Oh wait, it's not an impression! Aha I get it now.) The script has no twists like "Fight Club" and the direction is mediocre.
The script is by David Koepp, a good writer of thrillers but he turns this one into a parody of itself. Not an awful movie, but not as good as it could have been for sure.
Soon the stranger named Alex steps into Michael's life and turns it upside down, revealing himself as a sociopathic monster after it's too late.
If you think this plot summary sounds as if it has homosexual underlinings, perhaps it does. I mean for goodness sake what kind of grown man invites his hero to an underground club and lets him take control of his life? It's "Single White Female" with men. Maybe Alex and Michael love each other. I don't know. It seems like every film I've seen lately has been treating friendship as a sexual thing -- Freeman said "Shawshank" is about two men who love each other more than friends (which I disagree with), "Chasing Amy" was none too subtle and then we have all sorts of other films like this that imply some kind of homoerotic subtext. Frankly it's kind of grating, I miss those old films where two men were allowed to be close without being gay. ("Midnight Run", anyone?) This is kind of like "Unlawful Entry" meets "Fight Club," only it's worse than both. On one hand we've got really bad acting from Rob Lowe as a sociopath (please!) and James Spader doing another dork impression. (Oh wait, it's not an impression! Aha I get it now.) The script has no twists like "Fight Club" and the direction is mediocre.
The script is by David Koepp, a good writer of thrillers but he turns this one into a parody of itself. Not an awful movie, but not as good as it could have been for sure.