“The Face of Love” is a great Friday night film with a nod to Alfred Hitchcock and a wink to the only child.I prefer obsessive love noir films like Truffaut’s “Adelle H”. And this B class psychological thriller mixes grief and doppelganger allure in scary and humorous ways. My mind kept jumping ahead guessing and adjusting for all the possible endings. As a just- functioning widow, Annette Bening shows a fear I have never seen on her usual pixie face . It rather shook me. The games the mind can play. Ed Harris is equally as good playing the sappy new lover and then the outraged lost -husband double. The late Robin Williams plays an unusual role as neighbor and anamoured confidente. He is self-aware, vulnerable and intense just like we have come to expect and miss.The cast is superb and as believable as your imagination will let you believe given the definable disorders and denials of reality in play.
The tension is tight as we wait to see this tale unwind. Subjects of grief and loss go way beyond Kubler-Ross. Real love as muse or mate really isn’t fundamental to this film. It is what the mind can conjure.
I would not have chosen the L.A. and sunny Mexican locales as setting, but then again, “Rebecca” has already been made and the water imagery is still put to good use. See this for yourself and let me read your comments.
filmflamb 