Isaac Barr (Gere) is a psychiatrist with a trouble patient Diana (Thurman). He meets with Diana's sister Heather (Bassinger) to try find out more about her. The two begin an affair but Heather is married to a crime kingpin (Roberts). Heather murders her husband and uses Isaac's psychiatry clout to help her beat the rap. Isaac then begins to suspect that he may have been set-up by Heather and gets Diana to help him trap her. But does Diana have plans of her own?

Final Analysis reads like an attempt at the style of thriller that Alfred Hitchcock made his own, but with a dash of Fatal Attraction thrown in for good measure. However the film falls short of its ambition on so many levels that you're left wondering if the whole thing is meant as a joke - only it's not funny, so it fails on that level too.

Like Vertigo, Final Analysis starts off with a deliberately misleading (and long) first act in which our hero finds himself becoming dangerously obsessed with a mysterious woman. However when he finds that she was not the woman he thought she was - and here's the Fatal Attraction part - she turns into a rampaging psychotic.

The innitial affair is so lifeless and humdrum that the picture loses its audience almost immediately. The film was marketed on the pairing of then A-listers Richard Gere and Kim Bassinger, but the two completely fail to ignite the screen as promised. Gere's psychiatrist character, as written, is one of remarkable blandness. There is not one single interesting element about him and Gere plays the role with an immense lethargy to match. Bassinger who can usually be relied upon to at least be sexy is strangely unappealing here. While she puts her all into her two faced character, she isn't capable of overcoming the stories increasing silliness.

The rest of the cast offer little in the way of spark either. An underused Uma Thurman offers some engaging moments, but she's not on screen long enough to make any lasting impact. A scenery chewing Eric Roberts and a cigar chewing Keith David give amusing performances, although who knows if they were supposed to be.

After an interminably long time building up the key twists are finally thrown in, but they are, to say the least, completely unconvincing. With the innumerable options for knocking someone off, why Heather, who is obviously intelligent, would choose such a complex and risky method is beyond me. I don't care HOW psychotic she is.

Even worse though is the increasingly ridiculous series of events that lead to the climax - situated in a storm raged lighthouse. The use of the lighthouse, filmed from various glitzy angles, is of course a nod to Vertigo again, but it serves absolutely no meaning to the story of Final Analysis and just manages to make the film seem even worse by bringing to mind the superior model.

Final Analysis fails as a thriller, it fails as a vehicle for its stars, and it especially fails as a homage to Hitchcock.

Certainly one of Uma's lesser efforts this one. Interestingly enough Uma's face is the very first shot of the film, and the very last shot of the film. Unfortunately she doesn't appear much during the rest of it. Final Analysis is probably the hardest film to understand Uma's reasons for doing and it's obvious that she doesn't put everything she's got into the performance, perhaps sensing the weakness of the rest of the film. It's still a high quality performance though.

Playing a mixed up kid who may not be all that she seems, she brings a sort of Jennifer Jason Leigh type edginess to Diana. In many ways it's a brilliantly layered performance, she simultaneously conveys her character as a submissive woman who is pushed around by her domineering sister while at the same time pretending to be mentally unstable, and also developing a crush on her analyst. While in actual fact she IS to a certain degree mentally unstable, a whole lot more crafty than she lets on, and probably manipulating both sister and analyst all along without their knowing. Uma manages to get all this across despite, in the end, her character being terribly underwritten. Ultimately however her performance is pretty much lost in the murk of the rest of the film.

Along with it being underwritten, part of the reason for this is Uma's approach to all her roles. She will always play a part in the best way to suit that particular character, not with the intent of making herself look good. This film is perhaps the best example of why that doesn't always set her in good stead. The way she projects herself as Diana is in a very frail and gentle way, her voice is clipped and restrained and at times she also conveys an underlying nervousness. Her character is very much designed to be a low impact one, and that's how she plays it. In an artistic sense, her performance is perfect (and it's about the only thing remotely artistic about this film).

Considering how weak the film is in this particular instance I feel she may as well have been a bit more selfish with her role and stolen the limelight more than she already did. A less intelligent and more showboating performance might have let her shine to an even greater extent and get more out of the film for herself. That's not how Uma thinks though, in any role she's playing, and on the whole is certainly something to be admired. She should be satisfied with her offering here.

The last scene in the movie sees her seducing some guy in a restaurant. Two seconds before the credits role a complete transformation overtakes her face, a look of pure malice. It's an absolutely ingenious moment and highlights how much she was wasted in the rest of the film in favor of the insipid Bassinger. It makes you think you'd rather watch a film about whatever Diana does next than the one you just saw.