Masquerade (1988)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Bob Swaim

Writers:

Larry Brody (writer)
Dick Wolf (writer)

Release Date:

11 March 1988 (USA)

Genre:

Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

An heiress. A setup. A murder.

Plot:

A recently orphaned millionairess, Olivia, really hates her scheming step-father. Olivia finds love with a young yacht racing captain...

Plot Keywords:

Premeditated | Male Nudity | Yachting | Heiress | Secret Lover

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Rob Lowe	...	Tim Whalen
Meg Tilly	...	Olivia Lawrence
Kim Cattrall	...	Brooke Morrison
Doug Savant	...	Mike McGill
John Glover	...	Tony Gateworth
Dana Delany	...	Anne Briscoe
Erik Holland	...	Chief of Police
Brian Davies	...	Granger Morrison
Barton Heyman	...	Tommy McGill
Bernie McInerney	...	Harland Fitzgerald
Bill Lopatto	...	Weyburn
Pirie MacDonald	...	Theodore Cantrell
Maeve McGuire	...	Aunt Eleanor
Ira Wheeler	...	Uncle Charles
Timothy Landfield	...	Sam

Runtime:

Germany:91 min | USA:91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:12 (video rating) | Iceland:14 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R | West Germany:16 | Norway:15

Filming Locations:

Shelter Island, Long Island, New York, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Goofs:

Continuity: After having had sex with Brooke Morrison, Tim Whalen has a sweat-wet back and in the next shot is dry.

Nice little Hamptons thriller

I liked it. Setting and script are interesting, though not always especially original-- some of the plot twists seem to be thrown in because the story starts to lag. There is one fairly steamy sex scene between Lowe and Tilly, from the days when audiences liked sex scenes that didn't look like rape scenes.

As in so many films since the 1960s, the acting is so technically skilled and low-key it can fool an audience into thinking it's not acting at all...until they see the same actors playing totally different roles in other movies. Tilly is just superb; you don't see her at all, you just see the shy heiress. Even pretty-boy Lowe is believable in an absurd role that must have been hard to play (among other things, in his opening love scene, he hides the family jewels behind a door with a slick little move). Cattrall, in a small part, is excellent-- her sloppy character just seems to have turned up. And Glover (with messed-up Caesar hairdo) is his usual effectively spooky self as the villain. Delaney doesn't have a lot to do but she's loose and convincing whenever she's on.

You can tell this one was written for the screen by the name the writer chose for the heiress: "Olivia Lawrence".