Evidence of Love (1990)

This flick qualifies as a “Streaming Roulette”, a segment whereby I take a movie from my consistently maxed out Neflix Queue, check it, and bring it back to you.  As such, even though there is no random movie generator here, I regard it as a fairly random process since the original reasoning behind my adding the film is no longer completely apparent.

This here be the first film I’ve ever seen by independent auteur Stephen Gyllenhaal (father of my doppleganger, Jake).  Starring Brian Dennehy (excited any time I see his name, despite the automatic association with the B movie bin) and Barbara Hershey (excited any time I see her period), I expected based on the title, the date (1990) and the cover art, that I would be watching a wannabe erotic murder mystery.  But you know what they say: book covers are for chumps.  

Note: (I might be slightly off on the quote, though I definitely know it came from Tolstoy) 

Based on a true story, seemingly innocent Candy Morrison (Barbara Hershey) is accused of the murder of the wife of equally boring Stan Blankenship (John Terry), with whom she previously had an affair.  Regardless, local attorney Ed Reivers (Brian Dennehy) represents Candy, disregarding any possible notion that she could be guilty of such a heinous act.   Right from the beginning with Candy’s slightly suspicious behavior, we know we’re in for a psychological bent of the mundane kind.

With all major story points seemingly expected and presented on a platter, there is no place to look for much entertainment or mystery here.  Candy obviously killed this woman; she’s acting odd, she was involved with the deceased's husband, and she’s got a frightening head of curly hair (come ON people; Barbara Hershey is supposed to have long, straight, flowing, and beautiful hair).  Even though the writers don’t take long to reveal this clear fact, the “twist” they head for at the end doesn’t help matters.  The true story aspect of the film could asist if the happenings in the story really did occur as portrayed, but disbelief plagues it heavily.

This “made-for-tv” movie or teleplay (surprising at first; not surprising at the end) is also called A Killing in a Small Town; a title more representative of the simple and straightforward story.  It also avoids preconceptions given by the current title of a “made-for-tv” Basic Instinct ripoff  (again, Chekov was right about book covers).  However, viewing it as such may help to lift one's opinion.  Just as well, the film is not without deserved praise: Hershey is mostly effective, disappearing into her role and providing histrionics without too much melodrama.  Dennehy shows up and phones it in, but Dennehy in any fashion is always a welcome addition, as is Hal Holbrook making an appearance in the second half (his voice is active in the first).  Performances aside though, as well as respectable restraint by Gyllenhaal and crew in avoiding overdramatic music and camera work, along with a note-worthy nonlinear story presentation, this “true story” found me struggling to find purpose throughout.  Had I immediately known it was going to go this route, I would’ve turned on F/X (a Brian Dennehy classic!).

Tid bit: Barbara Hershey won an Emmy AND a Golden Globe for this.

Extra tid bit: I’ve haven’t won an Emmy OR a Golden Globe… but I’ve never sunk so low as to have curly hair neither! 

Drink of choice: Texas Tea.  Besides hailing from the same state as Evidence of Love, this concoction shares a thematic element.  With equal parts tequila, rum, vodka, gin, whiskey, triple sec, sweet and sour mix, and Coca-Cola, it may sound and look like a good idea at the time, but upon consumption and reflection, you should’ve had Busch Light (or watched F/X).