Supelice Dreadfully Boring

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

twhiteson An odd movie with a very abrupt ending, but underneath its oddness and artistic flourishes it's still a spurned-woman-getting-her-revenge story.The plot: Extremely pretty "Emily" (Geraldine Chaplin looking like she hadn't aged a day since playing "Tonya" in 1965's "Dr. Zhivago") is an oft-kilter ex-con who tries to readjust to society while at the same time stalking a married couple, the "Curry's" (Anthony Perkins and his real-life wife Berry Berenson). She decidedly fails at the former despite adapting a feminine appearance by re-teaching herself to walk in heels and getting a job as a cashier at a dollar store owned by the son (young Jeff Goldblum) of a former prison friend.Twelve years in prison has turned Emily into a bundle of jangled nerves with a hair-trigger temper and finely-honed defense mechanisms for dealing with "snitches" and "predators" which is how she seems to view everyone. Her revenge on a conniving co-worker (Alfre Woodard in an early role) and then avoiding retaliation by that co-worker's boyfriend (Alan Autry) make for the comic highlights of the film. (Watching Mrs. Tonya Zhivago "shank" someone has to be seen to be believed.) She's also learned that offering-up feminine vulnerability to authority figures is how to get what she wants as shown by her manipulating her super (Moses Gunn).The bulk of the film, though, involves her aggressively stalking the Curry's. The wife, "Barbara," is bewildered and frightened by the behavior of this complete stranger. The husband, "Neil," is far less confused by it upon getting a good look at the stalker. You see Emily was his first wife- a fact that he conveniently forgot to mention to Barbara. Also (SPOILERS), Neil was not faithful to Emily while they were married which apparently led to Emily removing his mistress from the planet and landing herself in prison. Neil is circumspect about what actually happened claiming that Emily didn't really commit murder even though it "looked" like she did. Did Neil set her up? Yet, that all appears to be water under the bridge for Emily as she seems set on winning Neil back. Still sporting her wedding ring and donning very feminine attire that she knows appeals to him (in contrast to Barbara who never seen wearing anything but blue jeans), she sets-out to seduce him back. Or does she? By film's end, it appears that twelve years in prison that resulted out of her husband's philandering and his moving on with his life as if she never even existed were not so readily forgiven by Emily.In some ways, "Remember My Name" is a slow-moving and artsy early version of the "Fatal Attraction" story with its warning to men not to sleep with crazy, but without the bunny-boiling extremes. Underneath its blues score and talky script, "Remember My Name" has a pretty standard scorned woman exacting her revenge plot. Yet, it's watchable for the performance of Geraldine Chaplin. As mentioned above, seeing the prim and pretty Ms. Chaplin as a hardened ex-con can be quite amusing. With her comes-and-goes "Nu Yawk" accent and a socially awkward persona even when she's trying to be "normal," Chaplin gives a very interesting performance and it's the highlight of this film.

RanchoTuVu After serving twelve years in prison for murder, a young woman (Geraldine Chaplin) seeks out the man who was her husband (Anthony Perkins) at the time the murder was committed. Why would she do this? The background story to this film is almost better than what's actually in the movie, although the movie is not bad at all. The crucial point comes when Perkins' character tries to explain the situation to his present wife, played by interesting Berry Berenson, after she has already encountered the rather menacing part played by Chaplin, in a tense scene in which Chaplin enters their (Berenson's and Perkins') house while Berenson is cutting up Romaine lettuce for tonight's salad. After she (Chaplin's character) is arrested for breaking and entering, Perkins's character decides not to press charges and then must explain why to Berenson's character. It's at this point in this movie that you can begin to figure out Chaplin's character's motivations, which lie nearly concealed. In this murky light Chaplin's character isn't as crazy as it is made out to be in the script, although twelve years of prison have taught her a lot about how to go about the judicious use of aggression, guilt, and other persuasive characteristics. The ending comes up rather fast, though endings like this one cause reflection, and that reflection may lead to the conclusion that in actuality there was nothing left for her to accomplish. She drives off on the same road she entered when the film begins.

footsperry This movie is about sweet revenge for a betrayal.Chaplin's character was once a trusting innocent and was used; now she gives him his fair due. Perkins and Chaplin and Gunn are all so right in their characters (though Chaplin's accent is "off," as it was again in "Nashville"), but they each gave real humanity to their characters. And the haunting music is for me the best part of the show. This film introduced me to Alberta Hunter, and in the years following this film I searched out five more albums by her. Bravo! And when shall we EVER get a DVD publication of the full film? Evidently Ms. Hunter died before signing a release for a commercial VHS (or DVD), so it's legal wrangling that prevents us from having our own copies of this powerful character study.

yeahman An interesting and well-acted psychological drama about an unhappily married man (Perkins) who finds himself stalked by his first wife (Chaplin), a mentally unbalanced woman who spent the last 12 years in prison for murder. You've seen this kind of insane-female-admirer plot before, but here it's handled more intelligently and tastefully than usual. It remains refreshingly unpredictable all the way through.Chaplin is particularly impressive, managing to exude fragility, menace, and just plain craziness all at once. It's a solid performance if you're willing to overlook her ever-changing accent (is her character supposed to be American or English?). The film also features an overbearing blues soundtrack that, while decent enough in itself, sounds like it belongs in another film. Still, it's a good movie, probably worth viewing more than once.