Evening Times (Glasgow)
March 11, 2004
By Andy Dougan

The sort of picture that gets independent films a bad name, this looks and plays like a Miramax movie designed by a committee.

The cast comes straight from the indie version of Central Casting. Apart from Joseph Fiennes, we have Deborah Kara Unger, Mary Stuart Masterson, Elisabeth Shue, and Dennis Hopper. Just to set the seal on its indie credentials there is the ultimate benediction - a cameo from Sam Shepard.

Two stories unfold in parallel. In the present day Steven (Joseph Fiennes) has been released from jail after serving time for murder. He has spent his years behind bars writing and takes a job in a motel to finish his book.

In his new job he sees a chance at personal redemption by rescuing beleaguered waitress Caroline (Deborah Kara Unger) from the abusive and drunken Horace (Dennis Hopper).

Meanwhile in the past, drunken widow Mary (Elisabeth Shue) is struggling in her own abusive relationship with house painter Brian (Justin Chambers). Her guilt at the death of her first husband is all directed at her son, the eponymous Leo. Eventually Leo can take no more and does something about it.

Impossibly mannered and insufferably tedious, this film still manages to retain a wholly unjustified sense of its own importance.

Nothing is quite so smug however as the performances of the cast, all of whom are so universally self-absorbed they appear to be in different films.

Like One Last Chance, the so called surprise ending is instantly apparent and by the end you'll be wondering who you see about getting two hours of your life back.