Crazy in Love

Stars: Holly Hunter (Once Around, Always, Broadcast News), Gena Rowlands (Once Around, Woman Under the Influence, Night On Earth), Julian Sands (Arachnophobia, Naked Lunch, Warlock), Bill Pullman (Ruthless People, The Accidental Tourist), Frances McDormand (Mississippi Burning, Raising Arizona), Herta Ware. Based on the popular novel by Luanne Rice, Crazy In Love is little more than a Harlequin in contemporary trappings. First off, we are asked to believe that Georgie (Hunter) is a little housewife living on an island with only her mother, grandmother, and sister's family (and that she has rarely ever seen a man outside of her husband and brother-in-law). This is, purportedly, the reason why she throws herself at a photographer (Sands )in Seattle, although she professes to being happily married. But then we're asked to believe that poor little Georgie is 1) a noteworthy roving reporter who specializes in interviews of women criminals, 2) a recent recipient of a grant from PBS to produce a series of programs, and 3) the subject of a photo spread in the New York Times. Somehow, the little housewife stuck on an island/modern day Lois Lane image has more logic loopholes than a guy who uses telephone booths as a dressing room. Out of this decidedly unbelievable stew is bred this obnoxious little fairy tale: will Georgie return to her senses or will she continue to goof around with the photographer? The audience doesn't really care. To add injury to insult the film parades the senile grandmother around in her underwear, or has her say inappropriate things, until the family decides to put her into a rest home. Then in one of those holier-than-thou reversals they "rescue" the grandmother they placed in the home, and make anyone watching who has a relative in a nursing home feel like a piece of dirt. Audience: Beats me.