(1986)
2
Donald Guarisco
Extremities is half of a good movie married to half of a misguided one. William Mastrosimone's script (adapted from his play) has an effective setup, focusing on the battle of the wits between rapist James Russo and reluctant victim Farrah Fawcett. This half of the film is handled in a gripping, believable style, with Robert M. Young's sympathetic direction offering a sleek narrative mechanism that puts the excellent performances of Russo and Fawcett into sharp focus. Russo is frighteningly believable as the aggressor, creating a villain who matches his feral rage with a scary knack for psychological manipulation, and Fawcett does a great job of conveying the fear and pain of a character trying to survive in a terrible situation. Unfortunately, the film becomes far less believable when the heroine turns the tables on her aggressor: the script suddenly becomes an allegorical talkfest when Fawcett's roommates return home, taking on too many issues and straining for plot twists and turns of behavior that defy credibility (particularly the ending). Young's direction and the gutsy, fully committed quality of Russo and Fawcett's performances keep things engaging but the cluttered, unfocused nature of the second half ultimately saps the experience of its overall power. As far as the roommates go, Alfre Woodard is solid as the script's voice of reason but Diana Scarwid turns in a distractingly hammy performance as the weakest link in the group of roommates. To sum up, Extremities is compelling from moment to moment, particularly during its first half, but is ultimately unsatisfying because it can never decide whether it wants to be a thriller or a polemic (and settles for a half-hearted try at being both).
Extremities on AllMovie
Extremities (1986)
