Monday, April 4, 2016

C is for: Crush



Crush (1992)
Director: Alison Maclean
Writer: Alison Maclean, Anne Kennedy
Producer: Bridget Ikin
Stars: Marcia Gay Harden, Donogh Rees, Caitlin Bossley


This is a steamy film, from the bubbling mud-pools of Rotorua to the ambiguous sexual tensions simmering beneath every relationship portrayed. Christina is a literary critic travelling with an American friend to interview a reclusive award winning author. The relationship between the pair is ambiguous.

Lane takes the wheel of the car and manages to crash, seriously injuring her friend while she walks away with little more than a scratch. Leaving Christina in the hospital, Lane continues on to the author, but meets his daughter first and takes her out for a wild night after which she seduces the youngster.

When the author discovers his little girl in bed with Lane, he’s initially crushed, but it isn’t long before Lane moves into his bed.

The title, Crush, is apt. Everyone has a crush on Lane, and she is excellent at crushing anyone who doesn’t help her get what she wants. But what that is, we can’t be sure.

This film was my introduction to Marcia Gay Harden and she has been one of my favorite actors ever since, especially in Mystic River where she plays a character about as far away from Lane as she could possibly get.

This is the last film Alison Maclean made in New Zealand before moving overseas to work.  She returned to New Zealand recently to make The Rehearsal, based on the novel by Booker Prize winning novelist Eleanor Catton.

9 comments:

  1. Hi Kate :) I'm really enjoying reading your reviews; I can't write one of these to save myself. I always cringe at the 'Write a Review' suggestion on GoodReads, because I feel as though, as an aspiring writer, I *should* be able to manage one. Maybe after reading your 26 examples, I might be able to muddle through one of my own?! Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks.

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  2. I thought the woman on the movie poster looked familiar, but I didn't realize who it was until you said it. Love her!

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  3. I haven't seen this film, or the A and B - hangs head in shame! Good write ups on them - thanks!
    Suzanne from
    Suzannes Tribe

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  4. I would watch any movie called CRUSH. Might be my favorite C word! I wish I could write simmering tension beneath every relationship. Gotta get to work on that!

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  5. have not seen this movie, but i just watched her in 50 shades. my first movie that i remembered seeing her in is the mist. she played that zealot woman. i thought she was amazing in the role. wasn't she on law and order with mariska hargitay?

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  6. I love the double meaning of crush in the description of this film. It sounds brilliant, quite heady.

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  7. Lane sounds like a creep more than a crush...

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  8. I haven't seen this but I have to say that Lane sounds like a nasty piece of work!
    Debbie

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