sol (There are Spoilers) Things aren't what you think that they are in "Don't Talk to Strangers" with a build up that keeps you guessing just who's trying to kidnap little Eric Bonner, Keegan Macintose, from his divorced mother Jane, Shanna Reed.It's when Jane got total custody of Eric that her ex-husband Robert Bonner, Terry O'Quinn, started stalking her day and night making Jane's life miserable. It's not that long after her divorce that Jane, and aerobic instructor, got romantically involved with one of her students the handsome and dashing health food addict Patrick Brody, Pierce Brosnan. In what seemed like a matter of day Partick not only made himself a permanent guest at Jane's home but got very friendly with Eric, who at first didn't like him, and had Jane fall in love and marry him!Robert a police detective realizing that his ex-wife Jane left him for another man started to check up on Patrick and started smelling a rat in his not so perfect past. Patrick spent time in prison for forgery and has been planning to marry Jane not because of love but because of Eric whom he has a great fondness for. A fondness that he had for Eric well before he found out where he lived and who his parents, Jane & Robert, were!The movie has both Jane & Patrick traveling to California and being stalked by Robert the entire way. It's not until almost half the film is over that we, and Jane, finally realize why Robert is so determined to keep Eric from being Patrick's step-son as well as keeping the real circumstances of Eric's birth from his wife Jane. It's the real reason that Robert started to drink heavily just after Eric was born which was one of the main reasons that he lost custody of him! Well acted movie that has a number of surprises in it that don't get out of hand and look ridicules in trying to shock its audience! The biggest surprise of all is the that it's able to stay on focus and still be believable even with the sudden turn of events in the films final five or so minutes.

ccthemovieman-1 This was decent film, not worth getting totally excited about, but still very much recommend. The problem is that if you haven't seen this film by now, you probably won't unless someone puts it out on DVD. It's been over 10 years since I saw this, and the photography was good enough to make want to see this again, this time on a widescreen DVD format.For a film that isn't well-known and stars an unknown actress (along with the known Pierce Brosnan), this was a well-acted, nicely-filmed movie. It movies well and has some nice twists to it, guaranteed to keep the first-time viewer interested. It will keep you guessing.Terry O'Quinn played the best role in here, in my opinion. Reed did a nice job of acting but I didn't care for her persona. Kudos to Richard Leiterman for his photography.What I didn't understand was the movie's "R" rating. There was very little profanity in here, very little blood and no nudity. What gives? It did read "R" on my VHS tape.

rsoonsa A conventional genre for filmmakers may be titled Theatre of Paranoia, within which are copious examples, this piece being one, wherein a protagonist is stalked or harried or wrongly envisioned or trapped or prejudiced against, i.e., in some way made to suffer by, generally, one person distracted by jealousy or some other mania. The victim here is Jane Bonner, splendidly played by Shanna Reed, who is tormented by her former husband Robert (Terry O'Quinn), a police detective with an extraordinary amount of free time who is maddened due to the disbanding of a joint custody agreement for the ex-couple's eight-year-old son, during divorce proceedings, Bonner's harassment becoming so acute that Jane and her new spouse Patrick (Pierce Brosnan) decide to leave their Saint Louis home and drive to California to start life anew, only to have Bonner trail them. Director Robert Lewis paces the film solidly during its initial scenes only to have his efforts hamstrung by excessive cutting along with a disjointed screenplay that is heavily reliant upon fancy, in addition to below standard post-production work (e.g., a car following Jane and Patrick is seen being driven from both sides of the front seat by its sole occupant), and a garish lack of knowledge concerning law enforcement procedures is only too evident.Throughout this foolish affair that the film becomes, Reed shines, easily gathering in acting honours with a subtly layered and credible performance, and O'Quinn also acts well, especially in light of his written dialogue. Richard Leiterman's cinematography is expert as always and fitting underscoring is contributed by Joseph Conlan, but the scenario's collapse into nearly total incongruity and odd character metamorphosis becomes too great of a handicap.

inhisblazer It's interesting to see what shape Pierce Brosnan's career was in before Bond arrived on the scene. In this "tense" thriller, Pierce Brosnan plays the gentle Patrick, who works leading ghetto kids on "confidence courses". He romances a woman, who has a bog-standard mop-top mid-90s kid called Eric. The woman's drunken ex-husband soon arrives on the scene and begins to mess with Pierce.At one stage Pierce is innocently making "vegeburgers". The husband enters. Pierce resumes making vegeburgers. The husband then assaults Pierce. Little chunks of half-eaten vegeburger call fall from Pierce's mouth. The fight abruptly ends without showing the outcome. This is as good as the film gets.