Maternal Instincts

Just shown or re-shown on cable tv here, I thoroughly enjoyed this wonderful melo-drama. Deranged patient takes revenge on her doctor and the star of this film is without doubt the "wicked witch" villainess. Her performance is in the mould of Bett Davis and she has great screen presence and is a star for sure. With an excellent supporting cast the movie is hilarious yet highly watchable; why is it that the "baddies" always seem more interesting than the "goodies"? Hopefully we can at same date have a Maternal Instinct 2......with of course the same wicked witch in the lead.....!

This movie was very good. Mostely because of Beth Brodericks (Dr. Eva Warden) acting. The movie aren't so very predictable and that keeps the excitement going til the end. I really really liked this movie and I have seen it several times. Brodericks acting is great throughout the whole movie and she makes it worth seeing.

Executive produced by Delta Burke, she is a pregnant woman who loses her baby when it is discovered she has cancer of the left ovary, and her doctor Eva Warden (Beth Broderick) performs a hysterectomy rather than remove the ovary. Burke then seeks vengence on Dr Warden - her home, her practice, her husband, her baby, and her life. Burke throws herself into all this with abandon, playing along with the campy direction by George Kaczender. Styled in her own Design wardrobe, she looks beautiful, a bit like Roseanne, particularly when wearing a red seductress dress with plunging neckline. Burke is very funny whether having a tantrum in a toilet stall or throwing pencils over her shoulder after she stubs out the point. The teleplay by Lisa Friedman Bloch and Kathy Kirtland Silverman makes Burke infantile in her anger, with a large doll collection, the kind of person who yells when they attack. That she has such good fortune in carrying out her plans makes the denouement disappointing,and the end definitely suggests a sequel was contemplated.

Some people can't get enough of these " stalker from hell " type movies right ? We've had SINGLE WHITE FEMALE , UNLAWFUL ENTRY etc and there was nowhere for the genre left to go . Enter MATERNAL INSTINCTS which spoofs this type of thriller

Tracy Horton wants a baby . She goes into hospital and it's found she's suffering from cancer of the womb so she is given an emergency hysterectomy which means she cant have children . This sets up the story for some comedy touches . At least I think they were comedy touches , well of course they're comedy touches I mean no one can take take the dialogue seriously can they . I mean what sort of idiot would write a line where a character wakes up in hospital and says :

" You mean I can't have children ? Why didn't you just kill me ? "

Does anyone need me to point out that Doctors aren't allowed to kill their patients on purpose ? If you want to get killed on purpose move to London and attract the attention of the police . Tracy doesn't seem to know this so it's left to other people to point out simple truths to her like :

" If you bought a lottery ticket yesterday you could have been a millionaire today "

Obviously Tracy is very frustrated about not knowing this because it seems to turn her into a sociopath , I mean she can't have children and she never buys a lottery ticket so who wouldn't be frustrated in her position so she takes her anger out on Dr Eva Warden , the woman who was responsible for saving her life . I won't spoil what happens but look out for the climax which rips off the original TERMINATOR movie .

Very sophisticated spoof that knowingly winks to a critical audience who always ask awkward questions like " Why didn't Tracy have children long before this " Probably because they cast someone who looks like a cross between Roseanne Barr and Elvira . Would you want to give her a baby ? Would you even be capable of getting aroused ? Very sophisticated spoof . I do hope it's a spoof

Delta Burke pulls quite a Jekyll & Hyde in this TV-made rip-off of "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle". A childless woman, desperate to have a baby, must undergo an emergency hysterectomy to save her life; upon recovery, she feels her chances at having a family have been stolen and goes after the female doctor who performed the surgery, systematically ruining the woman's life and career. Exploitation of real-life horrors is played to the hilt by Burke, twinkling like an evil, overgrown pixie. Still, it's shameful swill, and one is almost embarrassed to get caught up in the outrageous plot contrivances, amusing as they are. That said, the climactic showdown doesn't quite work (it's the only sequence which is awkwardly staged) and the "Psycho"-inspired tag at the end pushes the seriousness of the subject (revenge, kidnapping, etc.) into camp territory that renders the rest of the movie cartoonish.