‘Mortal Thoughts’: Demi Moore Stars In This Underrated Crime Thriller [The Overlooked Motel]
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Today’s pick is the underrated 1991 Alan Rudolph thriller Mortal Thoughts. The film benefits from a capable cast of recognizable faces, each delivering a dynamic performance. Moreover, it boasts a twisty narrative and a noir sensibility, complete with at least one femme fatale, harkening back to the golden era of the detective thriller.
At the start of Mortal Thoughts, Cynthia Kellogg (Demi Moore) sits in a police station, trying to answer the barrage of questions Detective John Woods (Harvey Keitel) is hurling at her. Cynthia appears downtrodden and broken as she recalls the events leading up to her arrival at the station. She explains that she and her best friend, Joyce (Glenne Headly), went to the Feast of Saint Rocco festival in New York with Joyce’s no-good husband, Jimmy (Bruce Willis). Cynthia continues providing more context, explaining that Jimmy grew gradually more intoxicated throughout the evening, ultimately walking back to his van to sleep it off.
Cynthia goes on to explain that when she and Joyce returned to the van later that evening, Jimmy was dead from an apparent stab wound to the throat. Detective Woods appears skeptical of the story Cynthia is telling, but allows her to continue. Throughout the film, Cynthia fills in the blind spots and does her best to explain her role in Jimmy’s untimely demise and prove that her intentions were just. A cloud of uncertainty hangs over the proceedings until the denouement, giving the viewer ample time to draw their own conclusions before (almost) everything becomes apparent in the end.
Moore’s Involvement in Mortal Thoughts Only Elevates the Proceedings
Mortal Thoughts was a passion project for Moore, and it shows. The Ghost actor worked as a co-producer on the film, putting in plenty of sweat equity behind the scenes, something about which she spoke during the pre-launch promo phase. The award-winning actor is just as effective onscreen in her turn as Cynthia, which is a delicate balance between femme fatale and woman in the wrong place at the wrong time. She deftly walks that line, playing the character William Reilly and Claude Kerven wrote with one foot in each end of that spectrum.
Moore may be the star of the show, but she’s assisted by an exceptional team of supporting players. Bruce Willis is great as Jimmy, the entitled creep husband who meets an appropriate fate. He’s smug, arrogant, and completely convincing. Willis is no stranger to tough guy roles; he made a career out of taking on similar parts, after all. However, here we get to see a particularly sinister, violent side of him that we don’t see very often. Here, he is menacing, unhinged, and a bit like a ticking time bomb.
Wait, is that Susan Sarandon?
Glenne Headly is also memorable in her turn as the decidedly unstable Joyce. I don’t know who, if anyone, needs to hear this, but I can’t help but mention that the late actress is a dead ringer for Susan Sarandon in this particular effort. Between sporting a nearly identical ginger-colored haircut to that which Sarandon wore in the early ‘90s and speaking in a thick East Coast accent, she’s giving Susan Sarandon. With that slightly off-topic detail addressed, I have to tell you that she’s also giving an incredible performance. Like Moore, she walks the fine line between victim and instigator.
It’s dynamic characterizations like that that make the film memorable. This isn’t a cookie-cutter psychological thriller where every key player is clearly guilty or innocent; there’s far more nuance at play.
Jimmy, however, is almost certainly a complete monster. That much isn’t really up for debate. Establishing him as a worthless son of a gun allows the audience to direct their attention more readily to Joyce and Cynthia, giving us the time and space to try to make sense of their motives.
Not One Death, But TWO!
Speaking of Cynthia and Joyce, we eventually learn of a second death that transpires following Jimmy’s grisly departure. While the film never explicitly explains at whose hands the second character ultimately winds up dead, it’s easy enough to make an educated guess. I like that approach because it allows for viewer interpretation and gives us something to talk about more than 30 years after the film first landed in multiplexes.
Ambiguities aside, I also have to give the film props for unflinchingly exploring a series of heavy themes, including sexual assault, spousal abuse, and addiction, with more nuance and tact than some films of its era. Director Rudolph doesn’t gloss over anything and avoids making moral judgments, instead letting the audience draw their own conclusions.
Mortal Thoughts Does a Major Disservice to This Supporting Character
My primary negative critique is that Billie Neal is tragically underutilized in her turn as Detective Linda Nealon. She’s scripted as a one-note Black woman character and given almost nothing to do. Don’t get me wrong, Keitel’s Detective Woods is a strong screen presence, playing the quintessential hardboiled detective. So, it makes some sense for him to take the lead. With that said, it’s insulting that his counterpart is effectively a glorified extra with no meaty or memorable dialogue. Representation has surely changed for the better in the years since, so at least historic wrongs have helped pave the way for progress.
All things considered, Mortal Thoughts is a chilling neo-noir that features a dynamite cast, nuanced characterizations, and enough twists to keep the viewer guessing. If I’ve sold you on the merits of this 1991 thriller and you want to check it out to see what I mean, you can find the picture streaming on Tubi and The Roku Channel presently.
That’s all for this installment of The Overlooked Motel. If you would like to chat more about under-seen and underrated films, feel free to hit me up with your thoughts on Twitter, Threads, or Instagram.
Categorized: Editorials The Overlook Motel
