Faithful -

Cher and Chazz Palminteri star in this all too obvious adaptation of Palminteri’s talky stage play. Cher and Ryan O’Neal play an unhappy married couple. On their twentieth anniversary, O’Neal hires a hit man(Palminteri) to kill his wife. When Palminteri arrives, he must wait for a signal that O’Neal has a clear alibi before killing her, so Cher and Palminteri begin a wide ranging dialog covering topics from sex and fidelity to therapy and health food. The dialogue is well written, but much more suited to the stage than the screen. Director Paul Mazursky can’t seem to figure out what to do with the two stars, whose extended scene together runs for more than half the movie. So, he has Palminteri pushing and pulling Cher (bound to a rolling chair) through the hallways and rooms of the palatial house, a technique which seems ludicrous at times. The final act, which infuses O’Neal into the scene, should enliven the film, but instead the pacing drags, hampered by several transparent plot twists. The acting is rather substandard throughout. Palminteri gives the best performance of the three, but mostly plays the standard mafia hit man. Cher seems depressed and morose throughout the movie, which fits her character at times, but at others makes her seem lifeless. O’Neal blunders his way through the smallest role, never quite conveying his character at all. The first portion of this film might be worth seeing for the dialogue, but it crumbles as a whole.