The Glow

Rating:
Summary: THE BOOK IS BETTER...
Review: Based upon an excellent book by Brooks Stanwood, this film tells the story of a young, attractive couple befriended by a group of attractive senior citizens who own and live in a gorgeous townhouse in Manhattan, replete with its own state-of-the-art gym. They offer the young couple (Portia Derossi and Dean Cain) a fantastic, spacious apartment in their townhouse for a fraction more than the young couple is paying for their current cramped quarters.

They lose no time in accepting this chance of a lifetime deal, not knowing where it would lead. Shortly after they move in, another young, attractive couple living in the building mysteriously disappears. The elderly residents of the building explain it away somewhat implausibly, arousing some initial suspicion in our newly moved in pair. Still, their initial concern is quelled, when an NYPD Detective appears and ostensibly sets the story straight.

Still, some mysterious, unexpected deaths raise the suspicions of the female half of this young couple. Moreover, the elderly residents seem to be becoming somewhat more intrusive, as they seem to impose themselves upon the couple at every turn. Reminiscent of "Rosemary's Baby" in some ways, it forges off in another macabre direction, having nothing to do with the supernatural.

Just what is going on? Well, that is what is at the heart of this film, which plays like a made for television movie. Portia Derossi and Dean Cain are out-acted by every one of the senior citizens, who are lead by Hal Linden. The plot is fairly obvious after a while, though it does keep the viewer entertained and, being moderately entertaining, is certainly worth a rental.

Rating:
Summary: Such a bad movie from such a good book.
Review: The Glow (Craig R. Baxley, 2002)

The idea of turning Brooks Stanwood's wonderful novel The Glow into a film has been kicking around Hollywood for almost a quarter-century; the first paperback releases of the book had "Soon to be a major motion picture!" on them. As usual, that didn't pan out...until 2002.

Would that we had waited another quarter century rather than get a Lifetime Original Movie™. Not only that, but a Lifetime Original Movie directed by Craig Baxley, whose feature film record was so bad it's a miracle anyone lets him work in Hollywood at all.

Baxley (director of such brilliant cinematic fare as "I" Come in Peace, Stone Cold, and Deep Red-and fear, my brothers and sisters, for he has been put in charge of the remake of The Kingdom) takes a script by Stanwood and equally good teleplay artist Gary Sherman (Dead and Buried, Vice Squad) and comes up with, well, bupkus. Jackie (Portia de Rossi) and Matt (Dean Cain) Lawrence are typical struggling-to-get-by New Yorkers. Matt, on his morning run, is mugged in Central Park, and a trio of septuagenarians comes to his rescue. By the end of the day, they've offered him a cheap apartment on the Upper East Side. The couple move in, and all goes well. Or so they think; Jackie starts becoming suspicious that things are not all as they seem.

The cast, to give credit where credit is due, do the best they can with what they've got. Others on the docket include Hal Linden, Dina Merrill, Grace Zabriskie, Sabrina Grdevich (whose face may not look familiar, but Sailor Moon fans know her as the voice of Sailor Pluto), and a host of others. All of them work relatively well within the parameters of what they've got, which is zilch. Baxley misses hundreds of small details which could have been used to build suspense, sets up silly situations (hiding under the stairs only works when the people you're hiding from can't see under the stairs!), things like that. All of them add up to, well, your typical Lifetime Original Movie; slapped together without any thought to the details of filmmaking.

Brooks Stanwood (actually, a pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing team, both of whom work in the publishing industry) is still alive, and still producing. With any luck, the authors have been shielded from seeing what their work hath wrought. Were there any justice in the world, the rest of us would have been shielded from it as well. *

Rating:
Summary: There's better things to watch.
Review: The plot was OK, but I think there were some big plot holes: was the 'parentless kids' connection ever explained?, Why was the star made to beleive she was pregnant??? And she was easily able to kill that guy in the end.
Agrivating scene: the police let the people accused of murder take the accuser into the building against her will!!!!