Experience in television does not necessarily
lead toward quality film production, and Careful
What You Wish For illustrates that point. Director Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum and writer Chris Frisina
have not escaped their roots in this production, which results in a mostly
predictable story worthy of the small screen. Young hunk Doug (Jonas) meets gorgeous, married next-door
neighbor cum femme fatale Isabel (Lucas) and ends up being a suspect in a
murder.
The main actors are all caricatures of movie
lore: the naïve young man taken in
by the poor helpless blonde beset upon by a mean husband, and a small-town
sheriff who really knows more than the “outsider” insurance adjustor. It’s not long before we figure out how
the story will unfold. Immediately
we’re set up to hate Elliot (Mulroney), Isabel’s husband, in his hubris, low
moral standards, and pure obnoxiousness.
Then we have the “purity” of young Doug trying to rescue the abused
Isabel from her oafish husband. We
get to spend delicious moments riding on the torrid affair between two luscious
bodies (notice, I said ‘bodies’; not persons) in thrall, knowing that the sword
of Damocles will soon drop. It
drops in the death of a major character and an expected murder investigation.
The actors Jonas, Lucas, Mulroney, and Sorvino
live up to their reputations as fine actors; it’s just too bad the script doesn’t
come in with imaginative twists to make this a new or moving film
experience. The ending is meant to
thrill, but since there was nothing to set it up, it was just another illogical
twist. I also had a problem with
everyone ignoring Doug’s mother, an attorney who had good advice for her son, just
as if she didn’t matter.
Careful what you choose to watch.
Grade: D
By Donna R. Copeland
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