A face to die for

Year of release : 1996

 

Run time : 1h28min

 

Genre : Drama / Thriller

 

Cast : Yasmine Bleeth, James Wilder, Robin Givens

 

 

The movie is based on the novel The Face by Marvin Werlin and Mark Werlin.

 

Emily has her face mutilated after an accident,one evening,in which her father died(thing we find out later on). Now she works for an antique store,and has a good relationship with its owner.

She meets an attractive man who is interested in her,and she can't believe it(she shouldn't). As their relationship turns serious,he is telling her he owes a lot of money to a dangerous man(that we never see and might be fake),and asks her to steal the money the old man has in the safe,at the antique store.

She helps him steal the money,and she gets caught by the police as she stays behind to save the old man as he needs his heart medication.

 

In jail for robbing the store, Emily meets Claudia,who protects her from the women who want to mess with her. Unluckily we don't see that much of it. Why is Claudia important there,why nobody messes with her,and what she says goes.

Her mother comes to visit,and she finds out her sister ran away with Alec.

 

After a fight with the woman who liked to pick on her in jail,she ends up in the hospital,where a plastic surgeon called by the prison warden wants to reconstruct her face,as one does(rolling my eyes).To save face,the writers make the character say it's pro bono,as the surgeon is working on an innovative laser surgery. How convenient!

The surgeon puts her in his home,in a beautiful room,gives her beautiful clothes,and even tells her how to act. Nothing sinister here! After 6 surgeries that we find about from Emily,she now has a perfect face.

The surgeon kind of keeps her from his friends,and in the end,the woman interested in him,shows Emily why the surgeon dresses her in that way.

 

Emily leaves and goes to the man she met while at the opera with the surgeon,asking him to give her a job,or more like,invest in her ,as she used to design clothes,and she wants to be a designer. She works with Claudia.

 

As fate or the writers would have it, she meets Alec,the man she robbed the old man for,again. He is now married to her sister. She decides to get her vengeance on him.

 

SPOILERS pretty much

 

The movie was so cliched,and followed all the steps in the book of cliches that it was ridiculous!I already knew what was gonna happen before happening,without having it watched before!

I don't know how much of the book is in the movie,maybe all,but it didn't translate well into the movie,as I think it should have been longer,to show us the relationships blossom.

For example,she befriends a woman in jail,but we don't see anything of their relationship,they just have random conversations anyone would have with their jail mate. After,we're supposed to think they're best friends.

 

Also, I don't understand why she had to go to her sister and tell her who she is,considering that by all accounts,her sister betrayed her,in more ways than one! She lashed out at her mother when she showed her the picture of her sister and her man ( who died alone after), as if she had something to do with it,but her sister for running away with her man and money,was Ok in her book!And what a shock,the sister tells her husband,who beats her,Emily came back and who she is now. I guess the writers needed to advance the plot,but the movie is so predictable,it's ridiculous!

 

Her mother is unlikeable as she stays home all day,doesn't move from the armchair,as she watches the same movies over and over again. She is always asking Emily to bring her beer and peanuts when she just got home from work! Emily isn't tired,her mother is,from watching movies all day!

She also tells Emily about how beautiful her sister is,and how she's gonna go places due to her face!She did,indeed!Rolling my eyes!

 

Her sister is unlikeable too,as she always complains about her life,but has no skills. She also complains that she has to feel sorry for Emily being the way she is!

 

About how the movie was edited, I didn't like that in certain scenes,like when Emily finds out about her sister and man,there's no music to express her shock,but in certain fight scenes,there is,instead of letting us hear the noise they make as they're struggling. Also, when Alec falls through the table,the scene is shot from every angle while music which didn't match is playing,which looked awful!

 

The actors were fine.

 

The soundtrack was awful and didn't age well. None of the songs they play matches what's going on,from the beginning of the movie,to the end. They play this song which made me laugh when she was making love to her man..when she starts her business they play this song which is supposed to be about her making it,and I was wondering if it was written for the movie,or it was a stand alone song as it was so bad..at the beginning , the car accident scene, they play a jazzy dance song..this movie actually has a lot of jazzy dance songs which I thought didn't match.

I honestly feel if the movie was edited better and had a different kind of music,it would have been better. Like this it just feels like a bad B movie.

 

You can watch the full movie for free,here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UI-cc4OgWU&ab_channel=SELMOON

 

Rating : The horror,the horror!