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Shattered Takes a Black-and-White Tradition Into Color

When Shattered opened in theaters in 1991, a lot of mainstream critics sniffed that its convoluted plot was "ridiculous." But what were they expecting from a movie about a wealthy businessman reconstructing his life after a near-fatal car accident leaves with no memory? Maybe the reviewers were thrown off by the fact that the movie is in color, but Shattered is a film noir through and through.

Unlike fellow Euro émigré Paul Verhoeven (who was mining similar territory in the early '90s with Basic Instinct), director Wolfgang Petersen (Troy, In the Line of Fire) here resists the temptation to poke fun at the outlandish twists and turns of his plot. As Tom Berenger's wife, Greta Scacchi makes a fetching femme fatale, while the bulldoggish Bob Hoskins steals the show as a more lighthearted version of the dogged investigator played by Edward G. Robinson in Double Indemnity. So the shadows are purple instead of gray. Suspend your disbelief (and longing for a simpler palette) and enjoy the show.

Shattered plays tonight, Thursday January 24 at 11 p.m. | 10C. Click here for the movie's full schedule on AMC.

Posted by M. Faust
January 22, 2008 6:17pm


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