Comic book artist Jonathan Lansdale(Michael Caine)loses his good hand in a freak car accident. His marriage to Anne(Andrea Marcovicci)had already begun to crumble and even suffers worse because JL even becomes are harder person to be around than before. She has hinted at them separating while she takes their daughter Lizzie(Mara Hobel)to school in New York, but when his professional career hits the skids, a California teaching job becomes available. The job itself is nothing to write home about but an affair with a student, Stella(Annie McEnroe), offers a promise of happiness as Anne becomes involved with another man much more attentive to her emotional needs(..and it does help that this man is kind to her treating her with respect which seems to be faults JL lacks). But, JL is not the kind of person to give up his family because his pride is a monster to deal with and his very thought of that man fulfilling his role as father enrages him. That's where the horror elements come into play. Those who cross JL's ire are being attacked and killed by his severed hand! That hand seems to have such power in it that it crushes bones and throats with gusto. Director Oliver Stone, though, often provides doubt regarding whether it's really that hand or JL himself as we see his face twist in bitter anger as if he's on the verge of unleashing furious violence. Caine does this well, but unfortunately his cartoonist can often be so vile and harshly aggressive and taken to outbursts towards Anne, that we feel nothing for him at all when his life becomes threatened itself. I certainly don't blame Anne for wanting to leave him and seeing his life fall apart isn't that shocking. It's hard to feel any sort of sympathy for his plight because we rarely have a chance to like him. Stella is able to get through to his calmer side which seems to soften him until we find out a secret regarding her and another teacher(Bruce McGill)she's involved with sexually.
Decent horror fare, with a nasty little bloody sequence where JL loses his hand with blood squirting all over the place. Stone creates enough a mystery keeping us from totally believing this hand is doing the offing. It has an end result regarding JL when that hand has one last task, silencing Anne(not that surprising, huh?)which might provide enough answers to satisfy, yet Stone doesn't release us, but instead drags it out further. That last five minutes, I believe, could've been left out and it wouldn't have hurt the film. Stone, it seems, wants one last grisly scene to close his film.
Decent horror fare, with a nasty little bloody sequence where JL loses his hand with blood squirting all over the place. Stone creates enough a mystery keeping us from totally believing this hand is doing the offing. It has an end result regarding JL when that hand has one last task, silencing Anne(not that surprising, huh?)which might provide enough answers to satisfy, yet Stone doesn't release us, but instead drags it out further. That last five minutes, I believe, could've been left out and it wouldn't have hurt the film. Stone, it seems, wants one last grisly scene to close his film.