Skeletons
A heart attack moves a Pulitzer winning journalist to leave NY for the peace of a small New England town, but he soon finds himself pulled into a case of a man accused of killing his gay lover with the blade of a shovel. Wanting to keep the case quiet, the town turns against the journalist and his family when he begins digging into its secrets, until finally the accused man is found hanging in his cell and the truth comes out about more than just the killing.
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- Cast:
- Ron Silver , Christopher Plummer , Dee Wallace , Kyle Howard , James Coburn , Arlene Golonka , Paul Bartel
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Reviews
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
It's a pity to have to write this considering the great talent pool that worked on this hack piece. Christopher Plummer must have fallen on hard times financially to appear in this wreck as a deranged Maine Scottish minister defending murder of homosexuals and mayhem directed at the New York journalist (Ron Silver) who uncovers the skeletons in the local retards closets. Every character in this film is a cliché to be hated as intolerant, bigoted, biased, prejudiced and just plane gun totting stupid. In point of plain fact it is the producers, director, writers and actors who fit that description. One would think that they could at least try to be subtle about their rancid hatred for traditional values in order to convince viewers of their ideas. Obviously not.This is as about as bad as it gets when New York socialists write a script for Hollywood limousine liberals to condition the minds of viewers that homosexual coupling is the wave of the future. Do they really think that movie-goers are that stupid? Guess so.Sui Generis Beverly Hills California
I don't know what the previous writer was talking about, this was an excellent movie, I think Ron Silver was completely overshadowed by the acting ability of British Born actor Lee Tonks but he still did good. Lee Tonks was excellent in this movie. The plot was well derived, cinematography was excellent! I think it's amazing that they managed to get Anthony Pownall to work on such a small budget feature, but I guess he must have been friends with the producer or something. I don't think the average American public realizes the acting ability of Anthony Pownall and Lee Tonks. anyone who watches this movie is in for a real treat.
Before you waste time reading this review. Please do not watch the movie.I feel I have wasted time in my life I will never regain and I suggest you not repeat my mistake by watching this movie. That said...If you were to judge Chris Plummer, James Coburn and Ron Silver on the content of this movie, No one would ever watch ANY of their other films. It was really that bad and worse. I have never wrote an opinion of a movie but this was so bad I had to today. What drove me insane throughout this attempt at a movie was Ron Silver the main character, whispered his lines most of the time and you could not hear him. You could here the others but no Ronnie Baby and I was actually cursing him through the movie. Oh my his "acting" was horrible. I would say he is the worst actor of all time. As for the plot and script, they were unbelievably bad and made no sense. It was like a very bad science fiction show but with no monsters or special effects.I can not imagine why James Coburn would take such an empty lifeless role.
I hold this movie in absolute disdain. It is one of those "we have a do-good, politically correct, neatly packaged little movie that we swear really does have a point." This movie is about a sleepy little town that has a gay murder that may or may not have been a hate crime (though they not-so-subtly make it clear that it was). An ill writer moves there, exposes the story, and is harassed to no end. This movie is basically here to say that moral positions against homosexuality are wrong, that religion is really an evil narcotic, and that anyone who disagrees is a bigoted homophobe. It is sad that the director let the soap-box proclamations get in the way, because the idea of a xenophobic little town with strange people and not enough genetic variation is a decent premise. James Coburn, Christopher Plummer, and Ron Silver are all very good actors, but they are simply not able to show what they can do.The pace at which this film staggers reminds me of one of my alcoholic friend's storytelling abilities. It lurches forth and alternates between fast action that makes no sense, then bizarre attempts to build suspense that fail miserably. The film also takes a turn for the bizarre when a crazy lady befriends the ill writer. I can't say too much about it without giving the move away, but the end is especially bizarre and disappointing. All in all, a very bad movie.I would, in closing, like to point out one key similarity between this movie and my aforementioned alcoholic friend. At the end of his stories he would usually throw up. At the end of this movie, you will.