tombarton-09317

A Canadian-produced re-visit to Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. Sort of. The "villain" is a widowed hospice nurse named Sharon who on the one hand kills her patients but on the other hand espouses Christian values-- i.e., concerned that her daughter gets married in a church by a pastor as opposed to a backyard ceremony conducted by a buddy with a minister's degree he got online. How unreasonable and square of her. She is also a little on the dumpy side and wears flower print blouses-- i.e a clue that.she is tacky lower middle class. There are several shots of a gold cross around Sharon's neck in case you miss the mocking slap at Christianity. The "victim/heroine" is Jill, the groom's mother: a slim- bordering on anorexic -blond,agnostic "artistic"' type usually dressed in flowing black with perfect make-up, perfect hair and hip accessories. No father of the groom in evidence, with Jill explaining her son's presumably out-of- wedlock birth as the two of them being alone against the world from the beginning. As a rich, chic liberal, she presumably never bothered with a paternity document much less child support. Jill lives in an absurdly huge and stylized modern mansion--what Canadians in Montreal clearly believe rich Americans in Boston would live in--complete with a panelled glass waterfall. Jill also has a gallery partner named Evan. When the two of them get together they dish dirt like teen-aged school girls about Sharon.. Not surprisingly, Sharon and Jill don't get along, and without giving anything away, ultimately Jill (Joan Crawford) becomes dependent on Sharon (Bette Davis). No black maid murdered in this movie, but it's not hard to guess who will be filling in for Elvira. I can't recall what the betrothed couple even look like--they come across as complete zeros. A few suspenseful scenes but over-all a shameless rip-off of "Baby Jane" with the most outrageous, unfair and hostile stereotypes of BOTH "religious" and "secular" characters I have ever seen on film.