Seducing Charlie Barker

I was surfing the Netflix bored one night and found Seducing Charlie Barker, and I am glad I did. It is an old plot with new subtleties. The plot is that of a struggling actor who, in the midst of a mid- life crisis, finds his life upended by an extremely tempting younger woman. He is married, however, to a TV producer who supports him and has ambitions for a family, and the whole thing gets quickly out of control.

The plot is old, but the characters are well played and have subtleties that make the movie very interesting. Stella and Charlie, (Daphne Zuniga and Stephen Barker Turner) the show biz spouses, clearly love each other, but their personalities contain the seeds of the destruction of their relationship--he is too head-strong and narcissistic, and she is too under control and competent. Heather Gordon, who plays temptress Clea, is terrific in playing an oddly self-assured sex-bomb who also can sneak in vulnerability; you are never quite sure where she really stands, and this helps add a lot of tension to the movie.

What results is a fairly believable interpersonal drama about real human beings in the show-biz world. There are more than a few unexpected twists, and the ending is really clever.