I don't even know where to begin.
I guess I'll start with saying the only thing that's been on my mind ever since the credits rolled ending this nightmare, which is what the hell is up Gabe? He's one of the most quietly insane characters I've seen on screen.
So his wife has a mental breakdown, and while she's in the hospital getting help he has an affair with Caitlin. This is clearly wrong and makes him a flawed man, but no one's perfect. From here his options would seem to be: a) come clean and try to repair the damage he's done to his and Liz's marriage; b) stop the affair and never tell the truth; or c) keep rendezvousing with the side hoe after Liz comes home and hide it. Instead, Gabe makes a fourth option, and this is where the lunacy really shows.
First, he has his mistress confront him and Liz outside their home claiming to be his long-lost daughter from an earlier fling. Then, he has her move in. Then, he sabotages Liz's career, which is also the only source of income for the family, while also gaslighting her by making her think he and Caitlin are up to no good and discrediting her accusations by saying he "feels it in his gut" that she's his daughter. He also invokes Liz's prior breakdown and consistently makes her feel selfish and awful for something that any normal human being would naturally feel empathy for. Next, he cooks up a very shoddy batch of blood tests, which Liz uncovers with as little effort as walking in on your kid in the kitchen with his hand in the cookie jar and crumbs on his face.
And... for what? What was all of this for? What was Gabe's end game? Was he going to divorce Liz and replace her with Caitlin, living off her minimum wage job at a record shop? What on earth was the plan?
As for the rest of the movie, it felt out-of-date and cheesy pretty frequently and the writing was mediocre. But I'll give it to Jennifer Beals, she's a good actor.
3/10
I guess I'll start with saying the only thing that's been on my mind ever since the credits rolled ending this nightmare, which is what the hell is up Gabe? He's one of the most quietly insane characters I've seen on screen.
So his wife has a mental breakdown, and while she's in the hospital getting help he has an affair with Caitlin. This is clearly wrong and makes him a flawed man, but no one's perfect. From here his options would seem to be: a) come clean and try to repair the damage he's done to his and Liz's marriage; b) stop the affair and never tell the truth; or c) keep rendezvousing with the side hoe after Liz comes home and hide it. Instead, Gabe makes a fourth option, and this is where the lunacy really shows.
First, he has his mistress confront him and Liz outside their home claiming to be his long-lost daughter from an earlier fling. Then, he has her move in. Then, he sabotages Liz's career, which is also the only source of income for the family, while also gaslighting her by making her think he and Caitlin are up to no good and discrediting her accusations by saying he "feels it in his gut" that she's his daughter. He also invokes Liz's prior breakdown and consistently makes her feel selfish and awful for something that any normal human being would naturally feel empathy for. Next, he cooks up a very shoddy batch of blood tests, which Liz uncovers with as little effort as walking in on your kid in the kitchen with his hand in the cookie jar and crumbs on his face.
And... for what? What was all of this for? What was Gabe's end game? Was he going to divorce Liz and replace her with Caitlin, living off her minimum wage job at a record shop? What on earth was the plan?
As for the rest of the movie, it felt out-of-date and cheesy pretty frequently and the writing was mediocre. But I'll give it to Jennifer Beals, she's a good actor.
3/10