Murder in Mind
Murder in Mind
| 01 August 1997 (USA)
Murder in Mind Trailers

The L.A. police find two bodies in a fancy house and suspect the wife of one victim. Dr. Ellis, a hypnotherapist, takes her back in time; with the police listening, a pattern of spousal abuse emerges. When each trance ends, however, the woman, Carolyn Walker, wonders if those repressed memories are true. Dr. Ellis guides her through her trial, testifies himself, and continues treatment after the verdict is in. Carolyn's memory and well-being get worse after the trial, not better. She misses some therapy sessions, and Dr. Ellis comes to see her at home. Snatches of memory come and go. Can he help her remember what really happened? Are the cops satisfied justice has been done?

Reviews
Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.
Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.
Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.
Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
hgn2001 A number of reviews of this film mention "late night" and I think it's quite suitable for that kind of viewing. That's how and where I found it. I happened to be sick as a dog with a bad cough/cold, spending the overnight in a hotel not far from work due to a snow/ice storm that prevented me from driving home. Waking up in the middle of the night to calm my cough, I turned on the TV somewhere just after this film had recently started on a cable channel.The story was off-balanced, weaving in and out of alternate realities, memories, hypnosis, and an overarching crime drama. It seemed a total mess, yet like a train wreck, it made me want to keep watching. Unfortunately, the ravages of my cold had me drifting off back to sleep before I could see where it was all leading.That led me to wanting to find a re-broadcast or find it on home video. The best I could do in the early age of DVDs was to locate a VHS tape of it to finally see it all the way through. It made a lot more sense when I watched the whole thing, though it's still not what you'd call a great movie.Still, something about it raises it above other 'bad' movies, so I've rated it a perhaps generous 7 out of 10 for its fascination factor.
sol1218 ****SPOILERS**** Suspected of murdering her husband Peter, Jimmy Smits, and the live-in, handyman Charlie, Gailard Sartain, Caroline Walker, Mary-Louise Parker, is being interrogated at the police station when she is appointed a court psychiatrist Dr. Ellis, Nigel Hawthorne. Dr. Ellis tries to help her remember what happened in the three hours at the Walker Estate up to the time of the double-murders that night. Going to Dr. Ellis' office the next day he puts her under hypnosis to help Caroline by regressing her back in time to the point where she married Peter and then back to the night of his and Charlie's murder.We see that Caroline's marriage to Peter was anything but happy with Peter holding Caroline responsible for forcing him to marry her by tricking him into getting her pregnant. Peter was driven to marry Caroline to prevent any scandal that would hurt his high standing in the community that he built up over the years.Peter was anything but a perfect husband to Caroline always yelling at her and even smacking her around at times even though he strove for perfection in everything that he did in his social life as well as his many business ventures to impress his rich and high powered friends and acquaintances. Peter was also very rude and nasty to Charlie, the live-in handyman at his estate, by insulting and putting him down at every opportunity. Charlie being a good-natured and sweet as well as at times a very hapless person could do nothing but take Peter's abuse and at the same time try to learn how to live with it.As Dr. Ellis slowly brought Caroline forward to that night when her husband Peter and Charlie were found murdered. Surprisingly we find out that she indeed was innocent of those crimes. Dr.Ellis' expert testimony at Caroline's murder trial is what convinced the jury to find her not guilty but the policeman who handled the case Det.Holloway, Jason Scott Lee, felt that she did murder Peter and Charlie. But now that Caroline was vindicated by a jury of her peers there was nothing that he could do. Soon after the jury verdict the truth comes out about the murders and it turns out that Caroline's mind was purposely blocked by the real murderer and he wasn't the person that we in the audience as well as those in the movie were lead to believe he was. Confusing movie with a number of ridicules flash-backs that had in most cases nothing to do with the story that we were seeing on the screen. The flash-backs popped up mostly at inopportune times in the movie and looked like most of them were left on the cutting-room floor because they didn't fit into the films plot. Also there was so many close-ups of Mary-Louise Parker's big brown eyes that it made me in watching the movie more hypnotized then she was by Dr. Ellis. The overly contrived conclusion of the movie spoiled whatever there was left of the plot and tension in the film. The really off-the-wall ending left you totally stupefied, just like Det. Holloway was with his jaw dropping and eyes wide open and looking flabbergasted at the end of the film.
Vince_In_Milan Confused murder suspect cannot remember if she murdered her rich husband. Against the better judgment of hard-bitten "throw the book at her and save tax-payers' money" type police department, smooth psychologist/hypnotist (Nigel Hawthorne) helps her to relive the night of the murder by means of regression into her past. However, as she relives life with her husband she begins to notice that lots of details don't quite match her memories. What really happened?This is NOT a fantastic film, I wouldn't pay money to see it in a cinema, for example. The depiction of hypnosis is bizarre enough to initially seem quite funny. Once you get over that rather shaky plot device though, the various layers of reality brought up by the hypnosis are quite interesting in a "what is reality?" way. It reminded me the teensiest little bit of "Memento" and even though it was late at night I ignored the film's more pretentious angles and sat through the entire thing. Mainly to see why the memory discrepancies occurred and so on. The lighting and photography are also quite nice.
tamander-2 If this film is an accurate display of J. Smits acting skills, I think he made a big mistake leaving television. Hasn't he watched any films "starring" David Caruso, especially "Cold Around the Heart"? Along the lines of acting ability, what about Mary-Louise, she has done much, much better. Yes, it is a terrible script, ineptly edited, and totally lacking in continuity, but skilled actors can and have overcome similar obstacles. A very big disappointment.