The Rich Man's Wife (1996)

Director:

Amy Holden Jones

Writer (WGA):

Amy Holden Jones (written by)

Release Date:

13 September 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller | Drama

Tagline:

The price of wealth just went up.

Plot:

A rich man's wife finds she has a bad prenuptial agreement with an even worse husband. Over drinks with a stranger...

Plot Keywords:

Happy Birthday To You

Cast

Halle Berry	...	Josie Potenza
Peter Greene	...	Cole Wilson
Clive Owen	...	Jake Golden
Frankie Faison	...	Detective Ron Lewis
Charles Hallahan	...	Detective Dan Fredricks
Allan Rich	...	Bill Adolphe
Clea Lewis	...	Nora Golden
Christopher McDonald	...	Tony Potenza
Loyda Ramos	...	Grace
William Crossett	...	Cab Driver
Eddie Francis	...	Bartender
Lou DiMaggio	...	Party Guest
Alexandra Hedison	...	Party Guest
John Paragon	...	Maitre D'
Marc Shelton	...	Instateller Man

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence and language.

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Philippines:R-18 | South Korea:18 | Iceland:16 | Germany:18 | Portugal:M/16 | UK:18 (video premiere) | USA:R | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Caravan Pictures

Trivia:

Spoiler: According to Cinematographer Haskell Wexler, after the test screening the ending was changed as "the bad guy at the end didn't die badly enough. As it was, Halle Berry shot the guy, bang, he died. When we redid the scene, she shot him, kicked him in the nuts, struck him with a hatchet so he fell back, shattering a car windscreen before hitting the ground, where we stabbed him with a high heel..."

Goofs:

Continuity: When Tony is being stalked by Cole, Tony stops at an ATM. We see Cole's truck pass Tony's empty car, and there are no vehicles in the background. A few seconds later, we see the same shot of the empty car, but now, instead of being in front of Tony's car, where it should be, Cole's truck is parked in a parking lot in the background of the shot.

Soundtrack:

I CAN'T STAND THE RAIN

A Guilty Pleasure, To Be Sure.

Josie Potenza (Halle Berry) is stuck in an unhappy marriage to Tony (Christopher McDonald); she confides in an intense stranger (Peter Greene) whom she's just met that sometimes she wishes that Tony were dead. Cole (Greene), not surprisingly, kills Tony, and ends up blackmailing Josie, saying that if the cops pick him up he'll tell them it was all her idea, and that she paid him to do it.

Standard-issue thriller is both flashy and trashy, with some decent if unexceptional plot twists (although I would appreciate it if screenwriter/director Amy Holden Jones would lay it all out for us just so we could understand that final twist). This could have been obscure or direct-to-video stuff but it's saved by Berry's star power and a good supporting cast. At the very least, Berry makes her character reasonably sympathetic if somewhat one-note. And the problem with the character of Cole is, especially with bad-guy actor Peter Greene playing the part, I could tell right from the start that he is not to be trusted.

To sum it up, it's just an average thriller, so I gave it five out of ten.