Intersection [VHS]

Big fan of Richard Gere, loved Brooklyn's finest, and Hoax, even him in pretty woman. This however is dull, uninspired, streching the story arc to breaking point crap. Can I get my money back, please.

Intersection started with a disadvantage in that it's a remake of one of my favorite films, Les Choses de la Vie. The original uses a terrible car crash (one of the best ever filmed) as a starting point for a series of flashbacks and reflections on the turning point in an architects life, when the relationship that ended his marriage is in danger of self-destructing because of his inability to make an effort. But where the accident is that film's focal point, replayed in various different ways as a kind of inescapable destiny, in Intersection it is used almost as an afterthought to bring some resolution to a mundane soap opera about an indecisive man torn between his career-conscious wife and his more liberal lover.
It's not a case of not giving the film a chance - there have been interesting reworkings of European films by Hollywood before - or expecting a raunchfest because of Gere or Stone's presence. It's just that it's really not very good.

The result isn't exactly unwatchable, but it is overwritten, overscored and surprisingly uncinematic. Rydell gives the film plenty of gloss but few cinematic flourishes, concentrating on the seen-it-all-before romance in a way that seems more TV movie of the week than anything worth paying to see on the big screen. Sharon Stone is superb as the ex-wife and Davidovitch does well as the lover despite some unfortunate and unnecessary scenes towards the end that undermine her character to make Gere look good - which brings me to the film's major failing. Gere's character and performance. Gere can act and has done good work, but this is an especially shallow and by-the-numbers ego trip more than a performance. Aside from being the screen's most unconvincing architect (and that includes Woody Harrelson in Indecent Proposal), the smug, self, narcissistic performance here prevents us from ever caring about whether the character lives or dies. Even the film's one nearly successful scene at a post office when he can't decide whether to post an important letter is ultimately destroyed by his hammy grandstanding phone call at the end of it.

Not that the script is any help. Scenes are overwritten, achingly obvious and horribly predictable, with everything spelled out in broad strokes. Ultimately you're just left wandering from predictable scene to predictable scene with little interest. Slick, watchable, forgettable, the final insult is that the novel and Claude Sautet film this misfire is based on is only acknowledged at the very, very end of the credits when no-one is likely to spot it. That said, the filmmakers are probably grateful not to be associated with this one...

The extras-free DVD is a respectable transfer, but you'd

Why it is so underrated ? May be because it doesn't have normal good ending ... but in my point of view - it does . The scene between Lolita Davidovich and Sharon Stone at the end ... THIS what made a real good end to this fine film .
Richard Gere is stuck between his control freak reach wife ( Sharon Stone )and a love of his life ( Lolita Davidovich ). He stuck between must and want . He has to pick , but he can't . And we think , we know his final decision ... but we don't . At the last minute of this film we do find out ... and we still surprised .