WHISPERS IN THE DARK

US, 1992, 103 minutes, Colour.
Annabella Sciorra, Jamey Sheridan, Anthony La Paglia, Jill Clayburgh, John Leguizamo, Deborah Kara Unger, Anthony Heald, Alan Alda.
Directed by Christopher Crowe.

Whispers in the Dark is a psychological thriller. It focuses on psychosexual matters. It is sometimes lurid – and ends very melodramatically.

The film focuses on Annabella Sciorra as a psychiatrist. One of her clients, portrayed by Deborah Kara Unger, relates sexual fantasies which are stirring for the psychiatrist. Another client, played by John Leguizamo, is an artist who focuses on sexual issues. She suspects that there is some connection between the two clients.

Alan Alda plays her trainer and mentor and she goes to him with her problems. He is a sympathetic listener. Jill Clayburgh plays his wife. She then encounters a man who flirts with her in her building, a pilot for a charter firm, and they become a couple. When the psychiatrist goes to the Tavern on the Green in Central Park to see the partner of her patient, she discovers her with the pilot. When the woman is murdered, she becomes suspicious.

Anthony La Paglia plays a detective who has problems of his own who clashes with the psychiatrist although working with her.

The film comes to a head – and the true murderer is revealed, rather unexpectedly for most audiences. There is a very melodramatic ending with Alan Alda and his wife and the pursuit of the psychiatrist in the sea. However, there is a very happy ending. The film was written and directed by Christopher Crowe, a prolific writer for television as well as a director for some series as well as the feature film centred in Saigon, Off Limits.

1. The psychological thriller? Sexual psychology? A police investigation? A murder mystery?

2. Psychology and investigations of the psyche? Motives and actions? Real and unreal? The psychiatrist listening, observing? Crime detection, investigation, motivations, the parallel of the investigation with that of the psychiatrist?

3. The New York settings, affluent, Fifth Avenue offices, psychological professionals, the world of art, the world of charter flights? The contrast of the ordinary Midwest town? The aerial photography? The musical score?

4. The title, the implications, especially for Ann?

5. Ann as the focus, Annabella Sciorra’s performance, the opening credits and the lurid dreams? Ann and her identifying with the stories from her clients? The psychosexual reactions? Her personal life, the relationship with Paul, his drinking, her determination to confront him, ousting him? Freeing herself? Her listening to Eve, imagining Eve’s stories? Listening to John Castillio and the issues of his art? His attraction for Eve? Her narrating her reactions on tape, her files and tapes? Her friendship with Sarah, with Leo, the background of her student days, Leo as her mentor, understanding her? The issue of whether she should go into therapy with him again? Doug and his flirting in the elevator, the cup of coffee, the flight to New Hampshire for the meal, the sexual relationship, happiness, his gentleness, her feeling safe, telling Sarah and Leo?

6. Eve and her sessions, the violence implicit in her stories, the vivid descriptions, the lunch, Ann going to watch her, seeing Doug with her, her reaction? The scene outside the office, the witnesses – and the later difficulties in the police investigation?

7. Eve’s death, the description, Detective Morgenstern and his investigations, his interrogations, abrupt manner? His wanting more information, wanting Ann to break confidentiality with her clients? His interrogation of John, his needling John, John knowing there was someone on the other side of the glass, his smashing the glass? His paintings, their sexual content? In connection with Eve’s death? John as the suspect? His photos, his seeming guilt?

8. Doug, as a personality, his charm, with Ann, the flight, talking? His own life story? His being interrogated, under suspicion? His persuading Ann that he was innocent? Flying her to his home town, her visit, Doug’s mother and her charm? Ann believing him, setting up the meeting, the deaths?

9. John and his sessions, his going to Ann’s apartment, tying her up, the confrontation, his innocence, going onto the window sill, the threats, Morgenstern coming, trying to hold him when he fell? His death?

10. Morgenstern, his background, his lies about himself and his family? His detective work, his method of investigation, interrogations, suspicions?

11. Ann, going to the coast, her fears, confiding in Sarah and Leo, her issues about her father, finding freedom with Leo’s advice? Her angers? Listening to the tape? Leo’s return, his cracking, his brutal hitting of his wife, the confession, the explanation of how he killed Eve and why, his obsession with Ann, his setting up Morganstern, killing him?

12. The chase, the motivations, Leo’s obsessions, on the beach, Ann hitting him, his drowning? The credibility of this melodramatic ending?

13. Issues of therapy, emotional needs, sexuality, identity and transference?

14. The final sequences, the flight, Ann and the symbolic learning of being a pilot, flying alone?

15. Popular ingredients, the twists, credibility – for this kind of psychosexual melodrama?