A very small indie film that most people probably will never hear of even though it’s got Annette Bening and Ed Harris in it. It stars Bening as a woman whose husband (Harris) dies, but she meets an exact physical double of him a few years later (Harris, again).
What Works: It wants to be a Lifetime TV movie mixed with Vertigo, but the elements of prestige picture and soap opera don’t mesh very well. Still, the movie is very cozy, and I doubt anyone will be furious they watched it. It’s probably best watched at home in the middle of a weekend when you’ve got nothing much going on. The performances (including Robin Williams as a neighbor and pal) feel awake, and the direction is fairly sharp.
What Doesn’t Work: It feels like there’s not much real momentum, and it’s more of a crawler than a builder. Also, it strains credibility that Ed Harris’ double character wouldn’t just look identical to her late husband, but also sound and move just like him too. Harris should have thought about finding subtle ways to distinguish the two men better.
What I Would Have Done Differently: The movie wants to be a psychological romance, but it really only succeeds on the romance part since Harris and Bening do have believable chemistry. The movie hints at bigger questions of identity and living out the past, but never digs deep enough into them.