Past tense

The police detective and aspiring writer Gene Ralston (Scott Glenn) is the senior of his partner and friend Larry Talbert (Anthony LaPaglia), who is a gambler and married to Emily (Sheree J. Wilson). When the sexy Tory Bass (Lara Flynn Boyle) moves to the next door, Gene befriends her and she tells she had witnessed a murder and is afraid to die. Gene tells that he is a cop and will protect her, and they have an affair. Later Gene visits Tory and finds her stabbed to death on her bed. Gene investigate the case and soon he learns that his neighbor is Dawn Tripplet (Marita Geraghty), who has been living in the house for thirteen months. Further there is no report of the death of any Tori Bass. Gene visits the psychiatrist Dr. Bert James (David Ogden Stiers) and he lves his office more confused. Soon Gene finds that he is not able to distinguish what is delusion or reality.

"Past Tense" is a great thriller in the neo-noir style with a complex plot that slightly uses the storyline of "Jacob's Ladder". The edition is very-well one and the music score is excellent. Scott Glenn is perfect in the role of a police detective and writer and the sexy and gorgeous Lara Flynn Boyle is in the top of her beauty and career. Unfortunately this underrated film has never been released on DVD or Blu-ray. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Traído pela Ilusão" ("Betrayed by Delusion")

Here's a modern-day film noir in which you're never sure what's real and what isn't real. There is a possibility you may get tired of guessing and give up on this film 3/4ths of the way through, as I almost did but it worth finishing. It also was better the second time around

The problem is just too many flashbacks. If some of those scenes were not replayed so often, or a few of the many twists eliminated, it would have been a super movie. It still was fascinating in parts. It grabs you, and you can't stop watching to see what the real story is. Along the way, is a bunch of nice colors and some nice film noir-type in the beginning and then during the ending credits.

The promissing cast starts good with nice scenes between the beautiful Lara Flynn-Boyle and Scott Glenn as the sensitive cop. But the story gets so weird: Lots of cheap flashbacks and "mysterious" knifes, glasses and fruits falling on the ground – uuups! – oh, you mean this is suspense? Then watch it. I didn´t enjoy it: 4 out of 10. To less Lara F.B. for to much movie.

First of all, anyone who claims that he or she didn't find this head-scratcher confusing must be the next freakin' Einstein! The plot is maybe more tangled than that of "The Usual Suspects", and there are enough distorted/out-of-chronological order events, half-remembered/repeated/altered lines and "was-it-all-a-dream-or-was-it-real?" tricks to baffle even the most avid mystery fan. Generally, movies with multiple twists and turns can be great fun, but this one is so contrived that it tried my patience. Besides, I don't understand why Lara Flynn Boyle had to whisper almost all of her lines (to come off as "seductive", perhaps?), or why they would pair her romantically with Scott Glenn, an actor almost 30 years older than her. (**)

The movie "past tense" is rated with an "8" here. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!! I watched the film for about 1 hour, then i turned it of, it was that bad. Very confusing with a lot of flashbacks. One moment the guy seemed to be in very good shape, the next he's in a coma in the hospital. And it started so well, i mean, the 2 main-actors hitting the sack after just 5 minutes, that's a new record for sure,guys.