Final Analysis
Encyclopedia
Final Analysis is an American
neo-noir
drama directed by Phil Joanou
and written by Wesley Strick
. It stars Richard Gere
, Kim Basinger
and Uma Thurman
. The executive producers were Gere and Maggie Wilde.
The neo-noir style of Final Analysis imitates Hitchcockian
thrillers like Vertigo
.
) is a top-notch San Francisco Freudian
psychiatrist
, who has Diana Baylor (Uma Thurman
) on the patient's couch. He is treating her for frightening and horrific childhood memories, which include images of her drunken
father and his death in a fire for which she wasn't blamed.
One night, Heather Evans (Kim Basinger
) enters Barr's office and says she is Baylor's sister. She asks Barr for information about her sister's case. It is implied, as part of the treatment, that Isaac speak to Heather to find out more about her sister's past experiences and determine if she might provide information Diana has forgotten.
Not long after, Heather seduces Isaac, and a steamy affair follows. The problem: Heather is married to Jimmy Evans (Eric Roberts
), a violent and wealthy gangster
. She also has a way of embarrassing Jimmy in public by taking a sip of wine
and then flipping into an attack of "pathological intoxication," which can end with the restaurant in shambles.
It turns out Heather is trying to involve unsuspecting Isaac in a diabolical plan to murder
Jimmy and collect a $4 million double indemnity life insurance
policy on him. She's also using Diana as bait and wants Isaac framed for the murder.
liked the screenplay and thought director Alfred Hitchcock
, known for these types of thrillers, would have liked it as well. He wrote, "I'm a sucker for movies that look and feel like this. I like the pounding romantic music, the tempestuous sex scenes, the crafty ways that neurotic meddlers destroy the lives of their victims, and of course the handcrafted climax..."
Vincent Canby
, film critic for The New York Times
, was pleased with the work of the actors in the film and wrote, "Mr. Gere and Ms. Basinger are attractive as the furious lovers, but Mr. Roberts is the film's electrical force whenever he is on screen. Ms. Thurman does well as a sort of up scale slavey."
The staff at Variety
magazine gave the film a positive film review, writing, "Final Analysis is a crackling good psychological melodrama [from a screen story by Robert Berger and Wesley Strick] in which star power and slick surfaces are used to potent advantage. Tantalizing double-crosses mount right up to the eerie final scene."
However, many reviews were negative. Critic Kathleen Maher wrote, "Joanou, with his puppy dog devotion to noir thrillers and Hitchcock, is hoping to get it all right by painting by the numbers. He's mixed parts of Double Indemnity, The Big Sleep
, and Vertigo
, but the result doesn't even live up to Dead Again
..." Maher also says she's seen Gere's acting like this before, and added: "[B]ut Gere reverts to that shell-shocked acting style he adopts when lost at sea." Rita Kempley, writing in The Washington Post
, called the film "an implausible psycho thriller" and said director Joanou "doesn't have any of his own ideas."
Currently, the film has a 52% "Rotten" rating at Rotten Tomatoes
, based on 23 reviews.
The film opened in wide release on February 7, 1992.
In its widest release the film was featured in 1,599 theaters across the United States.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
neo-noir
Neo-noir
Neo-noir is a style often seen in modern motion pictures and other forms that prominently utilize elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were absent in films noir of the 1940s and 1950s.-History:The term Film Noir was coined by...
drama directed by Phil Joanou
Phil Joanou
Phil Joanou is an American film director. He is also well known for his work with Irish rock band U2, having directed their rockumentary/live tape Rattle and Hum, one of three videos filmed for "One", and the video for "All Because of You"...
and written by Wesley Strick
Wesley Strick
Wesley Strick is an American screenwriter who has written such films as the comic-horror hit Arachnophobia, the Martin Scorsese remake of Cape Fear and the videogame adaptation Doom.-Life and career:...
. It stars Richard Gere
Richard Gere
Richard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
, Kim Basinger
Kim Basinger
Kimila Ann "Kim" Basinger is an American actress and former fashion model.She is known for her portrayals of Domino Petachi, the Bond girl in Never Say Never Again , and Vicki Vale, the female lead in Batman . Basinger received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture...
and Uma Thurman
Uma Thurman
Uma Karuna Thurman is an American actress and model. She has performed in leading roles in a variety of films, ranging from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action movies. Among her best-known roles are those in the Quentin Tarantino films Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill...
. The executive producers were Gere and Maggie Wilde.
The neo-noir style of Final Analysis imitates Hitchcockian
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
thrillers like Vertigo
Vertigo (film)
Vertigo is a 1958 psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James Stewart, Kim Novak, and Barbara Bel Geddes. The screenplay was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A...
.
Plot
Isaac Barr (Richard GereRichard Gere
Richard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
) is a top-notch San Francisco Freudian
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
, who has Diana Baylor (Uma Thurman
Uma Thurman
Uma Karuna Thurman is an American actress and model. She has performed in leading roles in a variety of films, ranging from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action movies. Among her best-known roles are those in the Quentin Tarantino films Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill...
) on the patient's couch. He is treating her for frightening and horrific childhood memories, which include images of her drunken
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
father and his death in a fire for which she wasn't blamed.
One night, Heather Evans (Kim Basinger
Kim Basinger
Kimila Ann "Kim" Basinger is an American actress and former fashion model.She is known for her portrayals of Domino Petachi, the Bond girl in Never Say Never Again , and Vicki Vale, the female lead in Batman . Basinger received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture...
) enters Barr's office and says she is Baylor's sister. She asks Barr for information about her sister's case. It is implied, as part of the treatment, that Isaac speak to Heather to find out more about her sister's past experiences and determine if she might provide information Diana has forgotten.
Not long after, Heather seduces Isaac, and a steamy affair follows. The problem: Heather is married to Jimmy Evans (Eric Roberts
Eric Roberts
Eric Anthony Roberts is an American actor. His career began with King of the Gypsies , earning a Golden Globe nomination for best actor debut. He starred as the protagonist in the 1980 dramatisation of Willa Cather's 1905 short story, Paul's Case...
), a violent and wealthy gangster
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
. She also has a way of embarrassing Jimmy in public by taking a sip of wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
and then flipping into an attack of "pathological intoxication," which can end with the restaurant in shambles.
It turns out Heather is trying to involve unsuspecting Isaac in a diabolical plan to murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
Jimmy and collect a $4 million double indemnity life insurance
Life insurance
Life insurance is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death of the insured person. Depending on the contract, other events such as terminal illness or critical illness may also trigger...
policy on him. She's also using Diana as bait and wants Isaac framed for the murder.
Cast
- Richard GereRichard GereRichard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
as Dr. Isaac Barr - Kim BasingerKim BasingerKimila Ann "Kim" Basinger is an American actress and former fashion model.She is known for her portrayals of Domino Petachi, the Bond girl in Never Say Never Again , and Vicki Vale, the female lead in Batman . Basinger received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture...
as Heather Evans - Uma ThurmanUma ThurmanUma Karuna Thurman is an American actress and model. She has performed in leading roles in a variety of films, ranging from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action movies. Among her best-known roles are those in the Quentin Tarantino films Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill...
as Diana Baylor - Eric RobertsEric RobertsEric Anthony Roberts is an American actor. His career began with King of the Gypsies , earning a Golden Globe nomination for best actor debut. He starred as the protagonist in the 1980 dramatisation of Willa Cather's 1905 short story, Paul's Case...
as Jimmy Evans - Paul GuilfoylePaul GuilfoylePaul Guilfoyle is an American television and film actor. He is currently a regular cast member of the forensic television drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation where he plays Captain Jim Brass.-Early life:...
as Mike O'Brien - Keith DavidKeith DavidKeith David Williams , better known as Keith David, is an American film, television, voice actor, and singer. He is perhaps most known for his live-action roles in such films as Crash, There's Something About Mary, Barbershop and Men at Work...
as Detective Huggins - Robert HarperRobert Harper (actor)Robert Harper is an American actor. He is perhaps most well known for his role as Sharkey in Once Upon a Time in America. He has also portrayed Charlie Gereson in Creepshow and Bubba 'Si' Weisberger in the CBS sitcom Frank's Place...
as Alan Lowenthal - Agustin Rodriguez as Pepe Carrero
- Rita Zohar as Dr. Grusin
- George MurdockGeorge Murdock (actor)George Murdock is an American actor.Known for frequently playing judges, , he also performed the role of "Big Daddy" in Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with the Arizona Theater Company during the 1988...
as Judge Costello - Shirley Prestia as Dist. Atty. Kaufman
- Tony GenaroTony GenaroTony Genaro is an American film, television and stage actor. He is perhaps best known to audiences for his role as Miguel in the 1990 film , Tremors....
as Hector - Katherine Cortez as Woman Speaker
- Wood Moy as Dr. Lee
- Corey FischerCorey FischerCorey Fischer , born in 1945 in Los Angeles, received a BA in French and Theatre Arts from UCLA. In the mid-sixties he worked in Los Angeles in improvisational theatre, notably with The Committee, and went on to work in film and television...
as Forensic Doctor - Jack Shearer as Insurance Consultant Doctor
- Lee Anthony as Judge
- Derick Alexander as Ambulance Attendant
- Abigail Van Alyn as Night Nurse
Critical response
Film critic Roger EbertRoger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
liked the screenplay and thought director Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
, known for these types of thrillers, would have liked it as well. He wrote, "I'm a sucker for movies that look and feel like this. I like the pounding romantic music, the tempestuous sex scenes, the crafty ways that neurotic meddlers destroy the lives of their victims, and of course the handcrafted climax..."
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...
, film critic for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, was pleased with the work of the actors in the film and wrote, "Mr. Gere and Ms. Basinger are attractive as the furious lovers, but Mr. Roberts is the film's electrical force whenever he is on screen. Ms. Thurman does well as a sort of up scale slavey."
The staff at Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
magazine gave the film a positive film review, writing, "Final Analysis is a crackling good psychological melodrama [from a screen story by Robert Berger and Wesley Strick] in which star power and slick surfaces are used to potent advantage. Tantalizing double-crosses mount right up to the eerie final scene."
However, many reviews were negative. Critic Kathleen Maher wrote, "Joanou, with his puppy dog devotion to noir thrillers and Hitchcock, is hoping to get it all right by painting by the numbers. He's mixed parts of Double Indemnity, The Big Sleep
The Big Sleep (1946 film)
The Big Sleep is a 1946 film noir directed by Howard Hawks, the first film version of Raymond Chandler's 1939 novel of the same name. The movie stars Humphrey Bogart as detective Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall as the female lead in a film about the "process of a criminal investigation, not its...
, and Vertigo
Vertigo (film)
Vertigo is a 1958 psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James Stewart, Kim Novak, and Barbara Bel Geddes. The screenplay was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A...
, but the result doesn't even live up to Dead Again
Dead Again
Dead Again is a 1991 psychological thriller/neo-noir directed by Kenneth Branagh, starring Branagh and his then-wife Emma Thompson. Andy García, Derek Jacobi and Robin Williams are also featured.-Plot summary:...
..." Maher also says she's seen Gere's acting like this before, and added: "[B]ut Gere reverts to that shell-shocked acting style he adopts when lost at sea." Rita Kempley, writing in The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, called the film "an implausible psycho thriller" and said director Joanou "doesn't have any of his own ideas."
Currently, the film has a 52% "Rotten" rating at Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, based on 23 reviews.
Awards
Nominations- MTV Movie AwardsMTV Movie AwardsThe MTV Movie Awards is a film awards show presented annually on MTV . It also contains movie parodies that used official movie footage with hosts and other celebrities and music performances. The nominees are decided by producers and executives at MTV. Winners are decided online by the general...
- Most Desirable FemaleMTV Movie Award for Most Desirable FemaleThis is a following list of the MTV Movie Award winners for Most Desirable Female. This award was last given out in1996, along with its counterpart, Most Desirable Male.-References:...
, Kim Basinger; 1992.
- Most Desirable Female
- Golden Raspberry AwardsGolden Raspberry AwardsA Golden Raspberry Award, or Razzie for short, is an award presented in recognition of the worst in movies. Founded by American copywriter and publicist John J.B. Wilson in 1981, the annual Razzie Awards ceremony in Los Angeles precedes the corresponding Academy Awards ceremony by one day...
- Worst ActressRazzie Award for Worst ActressThe Razzie Award for Worst Actress is an award presented at the annual Golden Raspberry Awards to the worst actress of the previous year. The following is a list of nominees and recipients of that award, along with the film for which they were nominated....
- Kim Basinger (also for Cool WorldCool WorldCool World is a 1992 American live-action/animated film directed by Ralph Bakshi, and starring Kim Basinger, Gabriel Byrne, and Brad Pitt. It tells the story of a cartoonist who finds himself in the animated world he created, and is seduced by one of his characters, a comic strip vamp who wants to...
) - Worst PictureRazzie Award for Worst PictureThe Razzie Award for Worst Picture is an award given out at the annual Golden Raspberry Awards to the worst film of the past year. Following is a list of nominees and recipients of that award, including each film's distribution company and producer.-1980s:...
- Charles Roven, Paul Junger Witt, and Tony Thomas - Worst ScreenplayRazzie Award for Worst ScreenplayThe Razzie Award for Worst Screenplay is an award presented at the annual Golden Raspberry Awards for the worst film screenplay of the past year. The following is a list of nominees and recipients of that award, including each screenplay's author...
- Wesley Strick (also story) and Robert Berger (story)
- Worst Actress
Distribution
The producers used the following tagline to market the film:- A psychiatrist and two beautiful sisters playing the ultimate mind game.
The film opened in wide release on February 7, 1992.
Box office
The box-office receipts were considered poor given the talent of Gere and Basinger, and the well regarded director. The first week's gross was $6,411,441 and the total receipts for the film's run were $28,590,665.In its widest release the film was featured in 1,599 theaters across the United States.