ltlacey
I do not understand why this movie is rated so low, and that so many people did not like it. But I guess you have to be in the right state of mind to see it. The premise is that after 20 years of marriage a lonely and depressed housewife, Margaret, and played by Cher, has had it, and rather than confront her hubby, decides to end her life. But before she can down the pills a hit-man, Tony, played by Palminteri, breaks in and ties her to a chair. I thought the dialogue between the two was witty, and the chemistry between Cher and Palminteri was great. They played off each other wonderfully. I also liked the parts with Tony's shrink. Absolutely hilarious. The low points were when O'Neal was around, but thankfully those were few, and when he was in a scene he did not do much more than stand there. Not a lot of dialogue out of him, which worked. There are a lot of movies made from plays, as this one is, and though some do not work out too well, this one worked, since we got more to see in a film than we would have from a play (visually). Not that it was needed. A few outside shots of how opulent Margaret lived, and that scene in the beginning with the Rolls, and that's all we needed. Check it out.
Theo Robertson
Adapting plays into cinema is often a bad idea because they're two different mediums . Do you think it's a great idea to make ZULU into a stage play ? Imagine it where two valiant redcoats sit in a tent gasping " Blimey there's thousands of them out there " Great movie and a bad stage play In order for a stage play to make great cinema there's two essentials needed 1) A fine cast that creates on screen chemistry 2 ) Great dialogue On paper Cher and Chazz Palminterri would be a good casting choice but not in these roles . The story revolves around a hit-man played by Palminterri breaking into a house to kill a wife played by Cher with most of the action taking place inside the house . I was unable to take these two characters seriously though perhaps it was the fault of the script which can't decide whether it was trying to be serious or funny . Since the story is very static it's of the utmost importance that the dialogue shines and once again because of the bizarre tone of the screenplay it embarrasses more than anything else with much of the conversation revolving around sex acts . if you want to see a great translation of a stage play transferred to the silver screen give FAITHFUL a miss and watch 12 ANGRY MEN instead
fleagles
This was better than I expected. Chazz Palminteri plays a hit man set to kill Cher, and who was sent by her husband, played by Ryan O'Neal. But then once Chazz starts to talk to her, they seem to have this snappy discourse. (He can't just kill her - he's waiting for a phone call from the husband.) This isn't more than a nice-looking play (great house in Harrison, NY), and it's not suspenseful at all, but Palminteri's charm carries it nicely.Vote: 7
DomiMMHS
"Faithful" is a worth-watching film, somewhere between comedy and drama, but not tragicomedy. It stars Cher as a rich but rejected wife who wants to take her life on her 20th anniversary. But then a hitman hired by her husband gets into her house. He ties her to a chair and they start to talk - as it's an adaption of a play - and slowly Cher's wish to live on is growing. The dialogue is quite spirited and also funny, you shouldn't miss it. And it's pretty cool when the hitman is making phone-calls to his psychiatrist and vice versa, again and again. You have to enjoy this, it's almost 'tarantinoesque', but better, because there is no celebration of violence here. Nevertheless, in the end it gets kind of disturbing and boring. Now the movie finally suffers from the fact that basically only three actors are involved. Cher's acting is very good in the beginning, her facial acting is fabulous when portraying the desperate woman meeting her killer. But from the moment when her husband (Ryan O'Neal) returns, her character is much less convincing and her face of vivid emotion turns a face of a pale mask of make-up, which - forgive me - she may think makes her look one or two decades younger. Now my vote: 7 out of 10!
AD
