The yield of dreams

Sleeper's dilemma fails to waken 'Passion of Mind'

June 8, 2000
Web posted at: 1:41 p.m. EDT (1741 GMT)

In this story: A twice-told tale Well, she's not bad RELATED STORIES, SITES

By Reviewer Paul Tatara

(CNN) -- Gluttons will be pleased to discover that Alain Berliner's parallel-universe love story, "Passion of Mind," is served with second helpings. Unfortunately, everybody else will have their fill long before the final reel unspools.

Demi Moore stars as Marie, a book reviewer who, along with her loving daughter, leads an idyllic existence in France. She also has a new beau in her life, an intense novelist named William (Stellan Skarsgard.) Moore's co-star, Demi Moore, is Marty, a New York-based literary agent who's married to her career, but may have finally found the love of her life in Aaron (William Fichtner), a not-particularly-interesting businessman.

There are better ways to convey that Moore plays two roles in this story, but the preceding paragraph is a lot like the movie itself.

	MORE REVIEWS
Big Momma Croupier Mission: Impossible 2 Small Time Crooks East Is East Dinosaur Center Stage Battlefield Earth The Big Kahuna Virgin Suicides Gladiator Me Myself I Time Code Where the Heart Is 'Frequency' 28 Days U-571 Joe Gould's Secret American Psycho Keeping the Faith Here on Earth Rules of Engagement Return to Me Romeo Must Die The Road to El Dorado The Ninth Gate Mifune Waking the Dead Beyond the Mat Erin Brockovich Drowning Mona Agnes Browne Mission to Mars Wonder Boys The Next Best Thing The Cup The Whole Nine Yards Reindeer Games Boiler Room Titus Hanging Up Simpatico A Map of the World

You're basically told everything twice, with different actors standing in each time you receive the information. The twist that's supposed to make all of this interesting is that Marty lives her life when Marie is sleeping, and vice versa. One of the two personas might just be a dream, but these "dreams" are so real, Marie-Marty is about to blow a gasket.

On one hand, it's wonderful to live in France and get all kissy-faced with your beautiful little girl. But New York City is nice, too, and both boyfriends are kind, caring men. What's a girl to do?

Not much, apparently. "Passion of Mind"'s mopey screenplay is by a powerful industry hack named Ron Bass (with after-the-fact work by David Field). He has never met a sentiment that he couldn't muscle down your throat.

"Passion of Mind"'s unwavering structure is its central failing. The insistence that each situation in Paris should be followed by a near duplicate in New York City gets ridiculous after a while. This three-chords-and-a-cloud-of-dust repetition is more reminiscent of a Ramones album than it is "A Man and a Woman" (1966).

And Moore, who isn't awful, doesn't do much to liven things. This contraption is a vast improvement over her last movie, 1997's histrionic "G.I. Jane." It's hard to imagine what wouldn't be. But there's something inherently joyless about Moore that adds an element of drudgery to her work. She seems to sneer at the other actors when she should just be listening, and when she finally breaks into what's supposed to be a warm smile, you're afraid her face will crack. Half the time she looks like she's playing a sexy contract killer.

Fichtner is pretty bland, and sometimes even a little bit creepy. But Skarsgard is wonderful, full of life and complex emotion.

You eventually have to wonder, though, why these guys would put up with a woman who claims to partake in a full-blown relationship with another man every time she falls asleep. Even Marie-Marty's psychiatrists (one of whom is played by the criminally underemployed Peter Riegert) consider her to be confused and needy, rather than a candidate for megadoses of lithium.

Never mind that there have been three or four dual-identity movies in the past couple of years. There just isn't a sense of do-or-die romance here, nothing to make you care which "dream" is real. Over-orchestrated strings try to force you into a state of bemused weepiness, but to no avail: You'll probably fall asleep before you start crying.

"Passion of Mind" is slow-going. There's very little passion or mind on display, just some tame sex. Rated PG-13. 105 minutes.

"Passion of Mind"

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.