Leo fails to deliver

Shue has always been an under-rated actress and though she shines in this good-looking film of over-lapping plotlines the overall impression is that it is not good enough for her undoubted talents.

Leo

Director: Mehdi Norowzian

Cast: Elizabeth Shue, Dennis Hopper, Sam Shepard, Joseph Fiennes, Mary Stuart Masterson

Cert: 15.

Shue has always been an under-rated actress - quite brilliant in Leaving Las Vegas - and though she shines in this good-looking film of over-lapping plotlines the overall impression is that it is not good enough for her undoubted talents.

It's a film which promises so much - after all, we have a top-notch cast - but somehow fails to deliver. It's clever in its structure of flashbacks and time-shifts and it has a lot of authentic atmosphere, but somehow there is still something not quite right about it; it would seem to be the weak screenplay which fails to give the cast something to get their teeth into.

The story is set in Mississippi where Shue is a bored and unfulfilled young mother with a college professor husband. He is discovered to be having an affair and she gets embroiled in an affair; the time-shift element involves an ex-convict released after many years behind bars for murder. He gets a job at a diner where the owner bullies his staff.

The two, seemingly unconnected, strands merely touch in passing; but the film is worth catching, if only to see Shue at her best.

Star Rating: 2/5