moonspinner55 Rob Lowe is well-cast as a yacht racing captain/gigolo on the east coast, one who's conspiring with a sniveling con-man to get rid of a sheltered heiress worth millions, but the role isn't even one-layer deep, not requiring much from the actor (instead, the picture flatters Lowe with a series of dreamy movie star close-ups). Less a murder-mystery than a magazine-spread posing as one, this gauzy, posh affair set in the Hamptons was written by Dick Wolf as if he were trying for a potboiler novella. Meg Tilly does fine in an illogical role, John Glover once again works wonders as the proverbial hissable villain, but the other performances fall short. The movie, too, for all its mechanical twists that attempt to ratchet up the suspense, slides quickly from the mind, almost before its finished. ** from ****

SnoopyStyle Tim Whalen (Rob Lowe) is a yachting stud having an affair with his boss's wife Brooke (Kim Cattrall). They live in the upscale town of Southampton, Long Island. Olivia Lawrence (Meg Tilly) is a young heiress after her mother's death. She returns home after college and gets involved with Tim. She is forced to live with her alcoholic gambling debt-ridden stepfather Tony Gateworth (John Glover), and his girlfriend Anne Briscoe (Dana Delany). On the surface, Tim and Tony don't get along but they actually have a scheme to kill Olivia. Tim starts to have cold feet but Tony threatens him. In the planned break-in, Tim kills Tony and Olivia insists on taking the blame as self-defense. Her love-lore friend Officer Mike McGill (Doug Savant) turns a blind eye to incriminating evidence.It's a twisty murder scheme conspiracy. The movie suffers as one thinks about it too much. It's highly questionable why Tim does any of it. How could he ever guarantee he'd be paid in the original plan? I buy into Meg Tilly's cluelessness. She's probably the only one that makes sense. The various wills and legality need to be better explained. Also the schemes seem to be so many excuses to advance the plot. My biggest problem is that the movie tries too hard to overload the overwrought melodrama. It becomes too cloying and tiresome. And that music just won't stop.

mnpollio If Masquerade had been filmed about 30 years earlier, it would have been directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starred Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. The storyline is very Hitchcock. Enchanting heiress Meg Tilly is never really sure who truly loves her and who is after her money. Surely her drunken, salacious stepfather John Glover and his trampy mistress Dana Delaney fall into the latter category. The current lawman Doug Savant seems to be carrying a torch for her, but Tilly is soon all eyes for local gigolo Rob Lowe, who dumps rich married Kim Cattrall and sweeps Tilly off of her feet into a whirlwind romance and marriage. And then Tilly starts having near misses on her life.Although the film fails to reach its full potential, there is a lot to recommend it, particularly for fans of the genre. The beautiful Hamptons scenery and the foray into the lifestyles of the rich and famous chief among them. The screenplay is well thought out and, starting from the two-thirds mark, twists and turns all over the place, but without losing its credibility. While Bob Swaim's direction is sometimes flaccid and allows the pace to slacken a bit too often, it usually regains its composure within a reasonable timeframe.Glover and Delaney have a blast in their roles. And there is strong support from Savant as the local lawman with a fancy of his own for Tilly. Cattrall has a largely thankless task - she gets to doff her duds and engage in sex scenes with Lowe to establish his credentials as a gigolo - but her character ends up being excess baggage with not even a tenuous relation to the main plot.The leads are a mixed bag. Tilly is quite wonderful as the heiress. She nicely walks the line between naivete and savvy - never making her heroine too suspicious, but not making her a pushover either. We believe her that she is in love with Lowe and we believe that she has the smarts to navigate her way through the various treacheries that litter her life. It is a rock solid performance and it is a shame that she is no longer acting. By contrast, Lowe is no Cary Grant. I have nothing against Lowe, but he performs much better in support or an ensemble cast than when called upon to lead the way. He is an attractive, amiable, but not especially charismatic leading man. As eye candy that would attract both Tilly and Cattrall, Lowe is semi-believable and contributes a couple of welcome nude scenes. However, when he needs to communicate some of the mystery of the man in question, his performance falters. The screenplay really needs us to wonder whether this guy really loves Tilly or may be trying to murder her - and we do wonder. Unfortunately, we wonder because the screenplay prompts us and because Lowe is often so vacuous in important moments that it is impossible to tell what, if anything, he is feeling. By the time the film concludes and provides us with our answer, we realize that Lowe's performance has laid no groundwork for the denouement. His acting here provides such limited impact/emotion that we have nothing invested in his character outside of what his plans for Tilly may be. Savant's supporting character actually ends up being more intriguing and better acted than the lead. This is truly a case where the film would have benefited from a stronger actor in the lead role.That said, fans of the genre will still find much to enjoy and admire here.

robert-temple-1 This is a superb thriller, which is given an extra dimension by the wonderfully sensitive performance of Meg Tilly in the lead. It is the film she made just before THE GIRL IN THE SWING (1988, see my review), in which her performance was absolutely spectacular. Here she was handed a two-dimensional character on the page and has transformed it into a four-dimensional person by the genius of her acting. An ordinary actress could have walked through the part and been competent but bland, and the film would have lost its zing. How many such films we have seen! But this film really works. The thriller plot is so ingenious, with some unusual twists, that I hesitate to reveal it. It is one of those double-cross and triple-cross stories. Tilly plays the innocent victim, fresh out of a good school and the orphaned heiress to a huge fortune, and obvious prey to various fortune-hunters. She owns eight houses all over the word, but the action takes place in the Hamptons on Long Island. The film is very well directed by Bob Swaim, an unusual American director who has made several films in French, and about whom little is publicly known. Few of his films are available with English subtitles, or at all for that matter. Someone ought to do a Swaim Revival. Swaim has an eye for good actresses, not just with regard to Tilly, but he has worked with Natalie Baye and Brigitte Fossey, for instance, so he instinctively goes for quality. The male lead in this film is played by Rob Lowe, perhaps best known today for appearing in the TV series THE WEST WING. He is just right for the part of the handsome but shifty young man who catches the eye of Tilly, having first passed through the arms and legs of the man-eating Kim Cattrall. Greed, greed, greed, that is the story, plus betrayal, betrayal, betrayal. Strong stuff.