Raising Cain

Starring:. John Lithgow, Lolita Davidovich, Steven Bauer Well, DePalma has finally done it--become a self-parody.

The split-personality psycho killer has become one of the most tired of conventions, and this is nothing more than recycled “Dressed to Kill.” How many times do we have to see deranged maniacs dressed in drag and stalking our hero? Not only that, but DePalma’s unerring camera has deserted him; all the stuff I used to find so seductive I now find irritating, probably because for the first time he is trying to compensate for a poor story with some flashy shots. And the story is weak--non-compelling and probably not physically possible if you look closely enough at the timing of the schizo’s comings and goings. For a while the tease is you don’t know if the “evil twin” is real or imagined; unfortunately, he turns out to be the other half of the same guy. The fact is it would have been a far better story if the crazed brother were real. Lithgow does his best, and he has a few good moments as the evil Cain, but the material just can’t sustain the picture. Like its clichéd double entendre title, it is stretched way too thin, thin enough to see through. (8/23/92)