Crush Movie Review

There's something deeply satisfying about seeing a real menace onscreen. No explanations, no excuses—she's bad because she's bad and that's that! Marcia Gay Harden, who played sultry Ava Gardner in Sinatra and soft-hearted Shelby Goddard in The Spitfire Grill, IS Lane, a genuine Wicked Woman of the Silver Screen. Don't be her friend, don't go to bed with her, and don't, whatever you do, get in a car with her if she's behind the wheel. That's what Christina (Donough Rees) the literary critic does (it figures), and she's left for dead (uh-oh) when Lane crashes the car. Lane goes to the home of novelist Colin (William Zappa) and immediately seduces him, then goes to work on daughter Angela (Caitlin Bossley), who's still a teenager. No, this isn't a Shannon Tweed movie, although it does sound like one, doesn't it? The difference lies in Harden's brilliant, what-the-hell interpretation as Lane. I don't how she worked out her character but she's so damn funny, I was cracking up through most of the movie. Writer/director Alison Maclean has an eye and ear for this sort of satire, and she chose the right actors for the right jobs.

1993 97m/C NZ Marcia Gay Harden, Donough Rees, William Zappa, Caitlin Bossley; D: Alison Maclean; W: Alison Maclean, Anne Kennedy; C: Dion Beebe. VHS