Movies: Passion

(Drivebycuriosity) - Alfred Hitchcock shaped the cinema of today. Many directors studied his methods and tried to copy the master of suspense.  Brian De Palma is one of the doyen`s most eager followers and delivered once masterpieces like "Dressed to Kill" and "Carrie". "Passion", which is now running in U.S. cinema theaters, is De Palma´s newest attempt to draw the audience in a Hitchcock style cinematic maelstrom (imdb).

To say it frankly, De Palma failed. "Passion" is a woodcut-like story: It starts with two women who are fighting about making career in a German advertising company which leads to dramatical consequences. De Palma used a lot of Hitchcock´s tricks like sexual innuendos, role playing, red herrings, dream scenes, childhood traumas and more to build up suspense. But he overshot his target by far and delivered a farce about a hilarious cat fight.The leading characters are caricatures at best. Their hyper-bitchy and unbelievable behavior destroys the creditability of the plot. The talents of the gifted actresses Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace was wasted.

After an allegedly dramatic finale the audience in Manhattan´s IFC, where I watched "Passion", responded with laughter. Maybe De Palma delivered involuntary a comedy. The somewhat similar thriller "Side Effects" by Steven Soderbergh is much closer to the master`s thrillers than De Palma`s film (/driveby).