Passion of Mind

So which would you choose? The professional woman's life in New York with the tastefully avant-garde apartment? Or the widowed mom's retreat in the little French villa that looks like a Pottery Barn catalogue? Me, I'd go for the latter, but only because the writer boyfriend played by Stellan Skarsgård has a lot more going on for him than the creepy accountant played by William Fichtner in Manhattan.

Whatever, these are the two options faced by Demi Moore, whose character is dreaming one or the other of these lives. Given that either life is way beyond the means of most of us, it seems churlish for her to complain, but in fact she has a shrink in both lifetimes, and both point out the obvious -- that hers is the modern woman's conflict between career and family. Ultimately it's resolved by a reconciliation with not one but two inner children.

This could have been an intriguing concept if done by a great filmmaker like Krzysztof Kieslowski (The Double Life of Véronique). It could have been an entertaining misfire if done by a hit-or-miss director like Raoul Ruiz (Shattered Image). But when churned out by the overrated French director Alain Berliner (La Vie en Rose) and the script assembly line known as Ron Bass, it's enough to give solipsism a bad name. Passion of Mind offers neither.

-- Peter Keough