Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Lilac Dream

(Marc Voizard, 1987)
Another installment in the "Shades of Love" romance series, whose scripts were the most notable late-career achievement of Julian "The Mask" Roffman. As usual, this soap opera romance is static, pandering, and corny. At least the narrative isn't violently neurotic, though, and the attraction between Susan Almgren and Dack Rambo is dramatically comprehensible even if one could live without the recurrent tongue action. The narrative of a career woman taking care of a washed-ashore amnesiac at the cottage is pure fantasy, and that is a genuinely good thing, insulating its wish fulfilling functionality against any disturbing real world implications. Too bad they stuck on the utterly mailed-in ending, a rote cop-out which lands us back in the real world with a loud thud. Up to that point it's actually kind of sweet. The long, wordless opening sequence signals an uncommon concentration, never resorting to the usual gauzy montage stuff even when they're slathering on the expensive Patti Austin power ballad.

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