I saw this movie a long time ago and enjoyed it enough to buy a cheap copy on DVD. MORTAL THOUGHTS stars Demi Moore with her then husband Bruce Willis and Glenne Headly. The movie would be best classified as psychological suspense. Demi Moore plays Cynthia Kellogg, a woman who volunteers to speak with Detective John Woods (Harvey Keitel) at the police station about the murder of her best friends husband, James Urbanski, as portrayed by Bruce Willis. The climax of the movie has a twist to it that maybe you all can figure out early on. It’s really not all that hard. Of all the body of work for Demi Moore and I don’t proclaim to have watched them all, this movie is one of her better ones. I also enjoyed GI JANE despite that lame title but that’s another film and another genre altogether.

The movie was directed by Alan Rudolph and written by William Reilly and Claude Kerven. Joyce (Glenne Headly) and James Urbanski (Bruce Willis) have a troubled marriage. Joyce’s best friend Cynthia has witnessed some of James verbal/physical abuse. The marriage deteriorates so bad that Joyce starts talking about killing James. Most of the time it’s just hypothetical talk but soon Joyce’s words turn into action. A bit about James: he’s a flat out asshole. Hateful, annoying and threatening.

Joyce makes one attempt that Cynthia intercepts. Usually Cynthia is the one to play referee between them. But anyway, Joyce tells her she put rat poison in the sugar bowl and Cynthia rushes up to the apartment to get rid of it before James puts in his coffee. After saving his life – unknown to him of course – James starts groping Cynthia and being the pig that he usually is. Bruce Willis was so effective in portraying the asshole, drug-addicted husband that I wanted to kill him myself. Joyce is just so tired of his antics that she wants to be rid of him for good. As a viewer I felt her pain.

Most of the scenes in the movie are told via flashbacks from Cynthia’s POV as she is speaking with the detective about James’s murder. Those scenes were the best. I loved Harvey Keitel in here. He really grilled Cynthia hard and the tension was high in the interrogation room as they verbally clash. The suspense of course is in the cover up. To say more would be throwing around spoilers. I think this is a good little movie with a decent plot. Consider it a buried treasure film. At any rate, Siskel & Ebert gave this movie two thumbs up which was why I watched it. I give this movie two thumbs up because after recently watching it it holds up well to me. If you’re ever in the mood for a good movie of psychological suspense, look this one up. A simple movie to pass the time away. The film had a modest budget of 8 million and grossed 19 million domestically. Length: 102 min.

Notes: character’s names (scheduled this to post! without proofing it first, my apologies and it won’t happen again)