Shattered Image (1998)

There are times when Raul Ruiz's maddening and mesmerizing film resembles a direct-to-video erotic thriller in which rampant clichés collide in scenes surreal in their straight-faced silliness. And there are moments when the fractured narrative and stylistic shards create a sophisticated study in alienation and disconnection. These elements often coexist in the same scenes. Ruiz is a master craftsman whose cinematic intelligence is put to the process of storytelling as much as to the telling of stories. Here he has two tales that intertwine through dreams and fantasies, bouncing off of and commenting on one another. Anne Parillaud stars as a lethal, world-weary assassin in the first and as a skittish, wide-eyed newlywed in the other. When one falls asleep the other wakes up, as if it were all a dream, but we're never sure which one (if either) is real. When the assassin takes a job that targets her lover (William Baldwin) and the newlywed suspects her husband (Baldwin again) of a plot against her life, it becomes clear that their relationship is far more than a schizophrenic split. Pinging against the narrative sophistication and deliriously rich images are creaky B-movie twists and hoary performances by Baldwin and femme fatale Lisanne Falk. The result is a film that defies its own conventions, like a parody of bad thrillers executed with the assured brilliance of a cinematic genius. It may not always work, but it never fails to astonish. --Sean Axmaker Amazon.com

"Where does the dream end and reality begin?"

In "Shattered Image," the line between reality and fantasy is blurred when two characters (both played by Anne Parillaud) start appearing in each other's dreams. Like the majority of actors in this movie (William Baldwin, Lisanne Falk, and Graham Greene), Parillaud plays dual roles: one being a weak young woman named Jessie Markham who recently married Brian (Baldwin) and is currently honeymooning in Jamaica with him; the other Jessie is a blunt hit woman who is hired to kill Conrad Reynolds (also played by Baldwin). Their lives begin to intertwine and mirror each other's as the movie progresses, cumulating in a somewhat predictable ending.

"Shattered Image" had the potential to be a good erotic thriller, but with a bad script and poor acting, it didn't quite make it that far. William Baldwin does make for pleasant eye candy, but I bought this movie mainly for Anne Parillaud, who I thought was terrific in "La Femme Nikita," playing a role similar to the one in this movie--an assassin. However, "Shattered Image" doesn't have as much appeal as "La Femme Nikita." In fact, I found very little appealing about this movie. It's long, complex, and hard to follow. I had to replay it a couple of times to really understand what was going on, and even now I'm not so sure I get it. Besides the cinematography, I can't find very much else worth praising about this movie. Unless you're a big fan of one of the actors or actresses, I'd skip this one. October 26, 2002

Worth a See! 3 1/2 stars!

Even though this film is a bit slow-moving, it is worth a see! Anne Parrillaud seems to go back and forth between two dreams -- and the viewer tries to figure out which one is reality. I figured out what was going on before it ended -- so I won't give it away, but if you've ever wondered what it's like to be in a coma and come out of it -- then this film is worth the watch. From the point of view of someone who has been in a coma for 5-6 weeks and has come out of it, it's a scary place to be and this film is one of the only films that I think could give someone an idea of what the experience is like. September 26, 2000

A waste of time

What can I say? After wasting too much time watching it, the movie still made no sense to me at the end. I like movies that make sense, or have some artistic unity. The acting was poor and flat in tone, perhaps because the actors were constantly asking themselves "How did I let myself get trapped into making this movie?". September 25, 2000

Worth a look for fans of off-beat cinema

The film is strange...it's best to watch it having no concept of what's going to happen, so I'm certainly not going to spill the beans, suffice to say it's a film sure to attract a cult following. September 18, 1999

I give the stars to Anne

I used to love Billy Baldwin. Then I read an article where he really downtalked one of his former stars, Sharon Stone. Now every time I see him in a romantic movie with someone, I think, well, is he gonna go and talk bad about this person too? The movie was ok, not great, but ok. August 14, 1999

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