User Reviews

I write this for people who've seen the movie, and don't understand it. First of all, you have to understand that Sarah suffered from multi-personality disorder from a long time before the movie started; most likely since she was a child. She didn't know this herself, because it's like that with MPD's. The regular personality doesn't know what the other(s) are doing. They are simply unaware. And her other personality hated men, while her regular just didn't trust them. That's why she thought her old boyfriend Benny left "without a note or anything". Her other personality reacted aggressively against a man that her regular personality loved; it killed him, and made it seem to her and her close friends, that he just left suddenly. She didn't know he was dead. However, although her other personality usually hates men, it falls in love with Tony, as well as Sarah herself. This is obvious in the scene where Sarah appears in Tony's home, slaps him, and has sex with him. Her regular personality wasn't ready for that kind of commitment yet; also, her other personality's way of having sex is very aggressive. Everything weird, bizarre, or directly threatening that happens towards Sarah, is caused by her other personality, because it's jealous. It wants Tony for itself. It starts out threatening her(the paper, the flowers), and ends with trying to kill her(with the heater in the bathtub). Sarah, who doesn't know that it's her other personality, and isn't good at trusting men, especially men who are close to her, blames Tony, because she doesn't feel safe when he's around. However, at the end, she is told the truth by Tony: He is investigating her, in order to find out what happened to Benny. In the beginning, Sarah doesn't believe that she's "been stalking herself". However, when her father enters, he triggers some memories, that awakes her other personality. She reacts aggressively to both, because she feels, as usual, that men are the root of all evil. She starts by killing Tony, because she was, in fact, in love with him, and it seems(to her, at least) like he isn't in love with her. After killing him, her father, not knowing she is not "herself" at the moment, tries to calm her down; this triggers more unwanted memories; she feels like she's back at the top of those stairs, her father making her cover his crime. She reacts very aggressively, as that memory is one part of the origin of her hate against men(the other being sexual abuse by her father). After killing him, she destroys the tape, which is the only devastating proof toward her suffering from multi-personality disorder. At that point she's still not "herself", but her other personality. She then covers her own crime, as she feels that it was her father's fault, just like back when she was little. After covering up her crime, she sits down by the body of Tony, and her other personality subsides. Sarah is herself again; thereby, she doesn't know what happened, but guess/thinks that Tony killed her father(which would seem logical to her, as she was certain that Tony was insane) and she shot him in self-defense. We hear that the police aren't going to file charges, since it seems like an obvious case of self-defense. She then gives us a definition on a multi-personality disorder(which fits perfectly on herself) and goes out with Cliff. She doesn't know that she is guilty of killing two people close to her, and the movie ends with the disturbing conclusion, that unless something hinders her from killing more, her other personality can keep killing men, while her regular personality can have a clean consciousness, as she doesn't know the truth.

Review:

While watching this movie, I thought that it was just the regular thriller. I was very surprised at the ending, which tries to turn it into more... I'm not quite sure it succeeds, but it made everything that preceded it easier to forgive. The movie has a very Hitchcock feel to it; suspense, shocks, atmosphere... It felt like it could have been the work of the late Hitchcock himself(save for the sex scene, which I'm not quite sure was so much necessary as an easy device to attract those on the look-out for such a thing). I recommend this to fans of thrillers(just don't expect a masterpiece... but hey, it's got Rebecca De Mornay, does anyone actually see her name on the cast list of anything and think "oh, quality cinema lies ahead!"?), particularly those who like them with a "twist". Yes, I actually just made that pun. 6/10.

I never expected to be so positively impressed by this universally panned thriller. Did all the other reviewers see the same movie I did? I just shake my head, and marvel at the brilliance of all these people who found the ending so predictable.

I daresay I'm older and have seen more classic thrillers than most of the imdb audience, but this movie kept me on the edge of my seat. And Banderas has never looked better. I thought both lead characters were interesting and deep. Harry Dean Stanton is marvelous, as usual, as the serial killer against whom De Mornay has to testify, and Len Cariou does a nice turn as her estranged father trying to make final peace with her.

De Mornay actually produced this, and the daring sex scene could not have happened without her enthusiasm. Okay, I agree the dead cat was too much of a cliche, but the detective? Banderas' true identity? Miller's real character? The twists and turns certainly had me going. Although I wanted to off De Mornay myself to take her place in the chain-wire fence scene. And, yes, this old gal certainly found it erotic, despite what I have read above. I think this is her best performance to-date.

I give this 10/10.

Man, is this lousy. It doesn't deserve much in the way of comment so, keeping it brief, Rebecca DeMornay is a highly disciplined police psychiatrist who falls for Latin Lover Antonio Banderas in a wine store, he of the ponytail and jail-house tats. When she cuts loose, she really cuts loose. Other than this torrid affair she's having (and we must admit the affair has its speed bumps) she's a pretty cold fish. Her broke, ailing father shows up for the first time in years and she boots him out. She's also adept at keeping her horny upstairs neighbor (Dennis Miller) at bay. And there's prisoner Harry Dean Stanton who's trying to maneuver her into giving him a diagnosis of multiple personality disorder so he won't have his privates nailed to the wall for the serial murders he's committed.

All these people, and perhaps more, are immediately suspect when strange things begin happening to her. Somebody sends her dead flowers. Somebody does unspeakable things to her pet cat. (The next time I see a household pet turn up in a parcel or strung up in the closet or boiled in a pot, I'm going to puke.) So who's doing it? Guess. No power on earth could force me to reveal the ending, but maybe a hint will help: childhood abuse.

The abuse excuse is an interesting business in itself, far more interesting than the movie. What does "childhood abuse" mean? Do we mean sexual abuse? Physical? Both? How about whacking a kid over the back with a wooden cooking spoon, hard enough to break it? That's what happened to me and my brother when we were kids, just as similar things happened to all the other errant boys in the neighborhood. Sexual abuse? That never happened to any of us, as far as I know, although I'm not sure it would have been rejected with any degree of animation. In the Samoan village I studied for two years, there was one case of an adolescent boy found playing sexually with a much younger girl. The girl's family beat hell out of him. The boy's own family sent him to live with another branch of the family in another village, an exile that lasted two years. By the time he returned the incident was forgotten by everyone, including the child. (By the way, the little girl we see here is under five so it's unlikely that she'd remember Dad's night-time visits in any case since long-term memory isn't really established until about that time.) DeMornay's experience leading to her mental disorder can be called "the social construction of trauma." It's not there unless we put it there. Enough of the psychiatric lecture. That will be fifteen cents.

You want trauma? I'll give you trauma. The film absolutely forces us to identify with Rebecca DeMornay's character, right from the beginning. Then, when she has her first tryst with Antonio Banderas, and Pio Donnagio's score is pounding the eroticism into our heads, the camera gives us a shot from over her shoulder of the bare-torsoed Antonio crawling over us with his hairy chest. Now THAT'S traumatic. It makes any male viewer feel as if he's on the floor of the laundry room at the California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo. Don't get me wrong. I don't dislike Antonio Banderas. It's just that I'm not in love with him. There aren't enough nude shots of Rebecca DeMornay's elfin body in the entire universe to compensate for that kind of anxiety.

Here's an engaging way of surviving this movie. Instead of just sitting there puling, try picking out the scenes that were filmed in Toronto and separating them from the ones shot in Budapest. It's a challenge, really, and may, for all we know, preserve your sanity.

***SPOILERS*** We first get to see pretty blond psychologist Dr. Sarah Taylor, Rebecca De Mornay, interviewing her favorite mental patient convicted serial murder and sex fiend Max Cheski, Harry Dean Stanton. Max seems to be far more knowledgeable in the science of multiple personalities then even Sarah is even though she's supposed to be the expert in these matters. It's much later in the film that we begin to realize how right Max was in that he's suffers from a multiple personality complex himself!

Sarah later gets involved with ex-cop Tony Ramirez, Antonio Banderas,whom she met in the wine department of her local supermarket. Tony a guy who can't take no for an answer sweep the icy blond off her feet and within hours the two have a sizzling as well as kinky affair at Tony's loft apartment. The affair between Sarah and Tony gets under the skin of Sarah's boyfriend Cliff Raddison, Dennis Miller, who in how he handles himself may be in need of psychiatric treatment, like Sarah's patients, himself.

The movie gets even more confusing when Sarah's father Henry Taylor, Len Cariou, unexpectedly shows up wanting to crash her place, because he doesn't have money for a hotel room, for the Christmas Holiday's. Henry has been estranged from his daughter since her mother died in a car smash-up when she was a little girl. It soon becomes evident that the circumstances of Sarah's mothers death are not exactly as her father told her in fact she was at the scene and made, through brainwashing, to forget the whole thing! As we soon learn it was Sarah's mothers death that was the reason that got her interested in becoming a psychologist in the first place!

It's when Sarah starts to get strange packages sent to her, one with the dismembered body of her pet cat Sam, that she starts to suspect that Tony, whom she's now having a stormy relationship with,is behind them. Sarah also finds out by breaking into, at his loft, Tony's personal belongings that he's been keeping a secret file on her, with newspaper clippings and police reports, that go back to he time when her mothers died some 20 years ago! Hiring private investigator Dudkoff, Eugene Lipinski, to shadow Tony's movement he reports to her that Tony may not only be an alcoholic in that he spent $700.00 on booze at the liquor store, in one day, but is also married with a five year old daughter!

It's when ex-boyfriend Cliff gets the hell beat out of him by a masked assailant that Sarah finally suspects, if she didn't already, that Tony is responsible for all the terror that she now finds herself engulfed in. ****SPOILER ALERT**** What Sarah didn't realize is that her troubles are a lot closer to home then she could ever have imagined!

Nothing special in this Alfred Hitchcock-like thriller with the exception of the typical icy blond, Sarah Taylor, really heating up the screen in her almost X-rated acrobatics with Tony Rameiriz. Something that even the "Master", Alfred Hitchcock, would more then hesitate in putting into his films!

This film is surprisingly not horrible. A product of the mid-1990s Rebecca De Mornay boomlet, it takes the woman-in-peril formula and jiggers with it just enough to come up with something worth watching…and not just for De Mornay's bosom.

Sarah Taylor (Rebecca De Mornay) is a psychologist who starts receiving threatening letters and packages, like someone is stalking her. But is her stalker Tony Ramirez (Antonio Banderas), the Puerto Rican charmer she's just fallen in love with? I s it Cliff Raddison (Dennis Miller), her upstairs neighbor who had a one-night stand with Sarah long ago and seems desperate for another encounter? Is it Max Chelski (Harry Dean Stanton), the serial killer she's analyzing in prison for his upcoming trial? Could it be her father Henry (Len Cariou), who's just re-entered her life and with whom Sarah has an obviously disturbing relationship? Or does her stalker have something to do with the fiancée who abandoned Sarah almost a year ago? The story keeps you wondering until revealing the truth, which turns out to be pretty decent for a twist ending.

Clocking in at under 90 minutes, Never Talk to Strangers is like a well made wading pool. There's no depth to it but it works as it's intended to. There's some sex, some mystery, a little humor from Dennis Miller and just a touch of violence. There's not a lot of chemistry between De Mornay and Antonio Banderas. However, they're both very pretty and the movie moves quickly enough that it never asks you to take their relationship too seriously. De Mornay, Banderas and the rest of the cast do reasonably good acting jobs and the film is adequately written and directed. Despite the ambition of the twist ending, there's not a lot here that will stick with you. For less than 90 minutes, though, it's a pleasant diversion.

The only thing that separates Never Talk To Strangers from the typical woman-in-peril movie you'd see on the Lifetime channel are a few F-words, Banderas' bare butt and De Mornay's naked breasts. So, if you're looking for a good, racier version of that sort of thing…you'll find it here.

The only truly interesting things about this film are the fact that De Mornay was one of the producers, demonstrating again the principle of Producer Self-Nudity, and that it's a product of the aforementioned De Mornay boomlet. It's one of the more intriguing Hollywood phenomena, where an actress who may have had some success as a starlet but never became a star, suddenly experiences a career resurgence in her 30s. These women usually get one attention-grabbing role and it's like the movie industry notices them again and decides to see if they can squeeze any more juice out of them. Sometimes these boomlets reinvigorate a career, like they did with Sharon Stone. Sometimes it just peters out, like it did with De Mornay. But whatever the reason for them, the 30something boomlet is probably the one thing that keeps a lot of actresses plugging away in movies long after they should have found other employment. I'm pretty sure the beautiful and talented Winona Ryder is wondering when her boomlet is going to come along.

Sorry I couldn't be more expressive in my summary, but those two words seemed to describe the movie perfectly. This is not only a bad film, but a bad film with bad acting and a plot that will be inconsequential to most watchers.

See it only for a naked Rebecca De Mornay tied to a chain-link fence and moaning with 'ecstasy; supposedly 'erotic', but actually hilarious.

Sarah was raised ''to never talk to strangers" to finite the deleterious enemies but does Sarah know herself that well or her own life is a strange mystery to her??

"Never Talk to Strangers" is a desirable mysterious thriller focused on the very early taught basic human tendency,'to not to talk to strangers' (especially girls, women) pushes the viewers to rethink the very moral of whether or not to trust others. Directed by Peter Hall released in 1995 categorised as neo-noir crime mystery psychological thriller.

The main musical score by Pino Donaggio is nicely composed keeping up the thrilling mystery with the ongoing Erotic romance elements of the film.

Reclusively principled Dr. Sarah Taylor (Rebecca De Mornay) a New York criminal psychologist a limited and cautious woman, restrains any relationships or sexual attachments due to troubled past (especially with men) only companion her cat Sarina and The Veer Institute Of Psychology. Her ex-boyfriend Benny Martin (engaged to be married) dumped or ran out past a year. A lusty (one night stand) friend Cliff Raddison (Dennis Miller) lives upstairs who still wanna bang but she just wants friendship.

After a long time her estranged father Henry Taylor (a traveling salesman) suddenly arrives as sick seeking relief and affection but Sarah's severe emotional problems and their difficult past relationship retains Henry from her. She panics by his presence recalls a bad childhood memory of her mother death and uncomfortable calling him dad. Several childhood flashbacks show us how her mother Alison decided to leave his father as he raped Sarah every night and in rage he pushed Alison from stairs and put the gun in little Sarah's hand brainwashing her to pull the trigger. Later faking her death as a car crash.

Her present patient Max Cheski (Harry Dean Stanton) an imprisoned serial killer with a psychiatric history. He is to examine whether he's a schizophrenic or suffering from amnesia or MPD(Multiple Personality Disorders) further his competency to stand on court-ordered trial. By his attorney Mr. Wabash(Tim Kelleher) he attempts to intimidate her evaluation by trying to get defense on an insanity plea, "If he really is suffering from MPD, one personality has no idea what the others are even doing. It's the whole basis for you defense, isn't it?"

But Wabash thinks she's been prejudiced against Cheski due to some personal issues regarding rape. He's bad tempered, panics whenever he's enquired about the voices he hears (voices telling him to do things).

"He describes finding himself places and having no idea how he got there." She meets a stranger motorcyclist Tony Ramirez (Antonio Banderas) a mysterious ex-cop recently moved from Puerto Rico, a skilled shooter with a pigtail describes as surveillance consultant (sells security devices) whose fervent charm compels a blazing affair. But for Sarah, "It's hard for me to trust people."Time to time she loses faith and trusts on him, he seems more dangerous and unknown to her causing volatile fights and angry arguments. Over a month of their relationship suspicion rises and the reasons to believe falls.

"Ever since Tony came into her life a lot of bad things; weird threats and damages have been happening." Initiated by a parcel of dead flowers and garbage at her doorstep, a hand delivered note in the email informing her own obituary in the newspaper and another parcel of her mutilated cat Sarina received by her neighbour Doris. Lastly, the bathroom heater had been tampered and Cliff strangled on confronting the Sarah's home invasion. She begins to doubt the several endangering men related to her as likely to be guilty. The suspicious Tony whose hidden intentions aren't clear, who maybe stalking her all the time "Its like you want to know everything about me and what do I know about you - Nothing." or an ally by Max Cheski manipulating his crimes as no guilty due to insanity; or the persistent Cliff who maybe jealous over her new love life; or her pedophilic dad with the traumatic homicide past or the missing Benny who abandoned without any explanation; or is it an unknown stranger who's invading her place?? Thereby she hires a private detective to follow Ramirez. "I think I'm falling in love with somebody but meanwhile I gotta check first to make sure he's not a psychopath." The ending is utterly out of the blue it'll blow away all that you'd naturally anticipated until the climax. The bias prediction of men and women qualities associated with women: nurturing, not aggressive and with men: virile, aggressive, not effeminate.

The lead character Sarah is a victim of child abuse, and her personality is mostly affected of Henry's propoganda of her mother's murder. Whenever trauma reminds, she loses consciousness or sudden moments of panics, losing mind, yelling loud at people. Rebecca De Mornay's acting is alright, a difficult character to be handled wisely but no one outstand or emerges pleasantly. The major flaw is the repellent chemistry of leads their relationship appears cold and first implausible encounter at the supermarket is very unsatisfying.

Spoiler alert: The twist is Sarah is the one behind all the deeds in fact she's suffering from MPD Multiple personality disorder (Dissociative identity disorder) stalking, endangering herself, changes her personality traits like the girl who's terrified of guns later learns how to shoot (got over it). She carefully reads, "Silence On Rape Angers Students" an article on newspaper of a former sexual violence. An angry strong Sarah doing sadomasochism and the strong passionate sex.

Lastly, Sarah alternative personality back to old self (normal personality) not remembering what has happened. The movie displays some early signs to viewers about her mental illness where she forgets about the Mr. Wabash appointment which she'd made earlier; when Cliff asks for vodka, she denies but onlooking he finds one.

"Somebody must have given it to me." (forgotten as she undergoes different personalities under different times and circumstances)

We watched this at home as a rental. The pacing was okay and there were enough plot points to keep the viewer watching and make it interesting. It was largely predictable, but not in a particularly annoying way. My husband and I discussed several possible twists during the film, finally deciding on the scenario that turned out to be correct. Even so, it was a decent film until the very end when my rating went from a 5 to a 2.

I was willing to accept the private detective who gave unrealistically timely and incredibly incorrect updates. What I won't accept is that the police don't follow even the most basic of crime scene procedures after the shooting. The most inept coroner would notice that "Tony" had not fired any gun and a cursory swab analysis of "Sarah's" hands would show that she had two different powders on them. I am not comparing this to the unrealistic standards of an episode of CSI, Bones, or Criminal Minds where the world's supposedly best forensic minds have access to the world's best (and sometimes futuristic) crime scene forensic technologies. Even overworked NY City cops would have done swabs in what might seem an open and shut case. Maybe especially in this case as cops tend to be suspicious by nature...

This 1995 erotic thriller has some of the right ingredients: primarily the rich, Bernard Herrmann-like music score by Pino Donaggio, and the good cast. Rebecca De Mornay is ideal for portraying repressed fire, Antonio Banderas can easily switch from likable to potentially dangerous, Dennis Miller and Harry Dean Stanton provide lively support (Miller gets the best line in the film: "I am Sisyphus with a hard-on!"). The De Mornay - Banderas erotic scenes are quite steamy. It's a well-done film of its type, but the ending is telegraphed in advance, and the final psychological explanations are clichéd. A moderate success. **1/2 out of 4.