Faithful

I just love this film. First, Paul Mazursky is one of my all time favourite directors and the performances (other than Ryan O'Neal's) are just top notch. It's a great screenplay, the editing is on point.. there is little not to love here. I say it when it came out and I can still quote it years later. It's a small film, no special effects, no spectacular stunts. But Cher and Chazz Palminteri have great chemistry both deserve much praise here and Mazursky handles it with his usual understanding of how people interact in real life. His "Next Stop Greenwich Village" is in my top 10 films of all time. But this is my second favourite film of his. A great director in really fine form... and it's worth a watch.

This was better than I expected. Chazz Palminteri plays a hit man set to kill Cher, and who was sent by her husband, played by Ryan O'Neal. But then once Chazz starts to talk to her, they seem to have this snappy discourse. (He can't just kill her - he's waiting for a phone call from the husband.) This isn't more than a nice-looking play (great house in Harrison, NY), and it's not suspenseful at all, but Palminteri's charm carries it nicely.

Vote: 7

"Faithful" is a worth-watching film, somewhere between comedy and drama, but not tragicomedy. It stars Cher as a rich but rejected wife who wants to take her life on her 20th anniversary. But then a hitman hired by her husband gets into her house. He ties her to a chair and they start to talk - as it's an adaption of a play - and slowly Cher's wish to live on is growing. The dialogue is quite spirited and also funny, you shouldn't miss it. And it's pretty cool when the hitman is making phone-calls to his psychiatrist and vice versa, again and again. You have to enjoy this, it's almost 'tarantinoesque', but better, because there is no celebration of violence here. Nevertheless, in the end it gets kind of disturbing and boring. Now the movie finally suffers from the fact that basically only three actors are involved. Cher's acting is very good in the beginning, her facial acting is fabulous when portraying the desperate woman meeting her killer. But from the moment when her husband (Ryan O'Neal) returns, her character is much less convincing and her face of vivid emotion turns a face of a pale mask of make-up, which - forgive me - she may think makes her look one or two decades younger. Now my vote: 7 out of 10!

Ok, so it's not an action packed thriller, but if you're in the mood to laugh, it's a great movie. Cher's acting was wonderful when you consider the fact that it was mainly just her and Chazz Palminteri for the majority of the movie. I personally thought that Chazz's acting was excellent. I mean, he wrote the movie AND was the main character. To me that seems like it would take a lot of talent which he obviously has to accomplish such a thing. I've heard some people say that they were disappointed at the fact that Chazz played his normal mobster character. In my opinion, his best rolls are when he plays a hitman, mobster, etc, because you know he's Italian, and makes a great tuff guy, even though in reality I bet he's probably really sweet. Another comment I've heard is that it was boring. If you thought it was boring, see it again because you didn't understand it. Keep in mind that the strength of this movie is the witty dialogue BECAUSE it was based on a play and BECAUSE it was a play/movie that was from the perspective of a cheated housewife held captive. What did you expect?

"Faithful" directed by Paul Mazurski doesn't add anything to his otherwise prestigious resume. As a comedy director, Mr. Mazurski has done better. Unfortunately, he doesn't appear to have been inspired, by the story or by his cast.

In fact, one of the worst things in the film is the overbearing role of Chazz Palmentieri, whose Tony is one of the most obnoxious things he has played in the movies. Cher, as Margaret, the redheaded woman, married to a rat fink, doesn't bring anything new to the screen. She could do much better, but unfortunately, not here. Finally, Ryan O'Neal doesn't have much to do.

The best thing about "Faithful" is its 91 minutes running time! Sorry Mr. Mazurski, you need to stay away from whoever told you Chass Palmentieri's screen play had possibilities.