It took filmmaker Robin Hardy over a dozen years to follow up his well loved cult flick "The Wicker Man". And judging by the results here, one might be inclined to think that he turned out to be a one-trick pony. Adapting the novel "Goosefoot", he spins the yarn of young Patricia Teeling (Moira Harris, a.k.a. Mrs. Gary Sinise), a simple Irish country lass who moves away from the family farm to work as a teacher in Dublin. She is aggressively romanced by American expatriate author Danny Sullivan (Timothy Bottoms, "The Last Picture Show", "The Paper Chase"). Meanwhile, a serial killer who clearly loves to hear themselves talk is phoning unfortunate young women, then murdering them.
"The Fantasist" is ultimately hurt by being overly silly and incredibly trite. It's set up way too obviously to create much suspense, or derive much pleasure from it. Also, Danny's attempts to be quirky and charming just come off as goofy a lot of the time. Bottoms is clearly having fun with this character, but Danny's shtick wears out its welcome early on. The story is plodding and doesn't offer much interest, but at least the distinctive Irish flavor helps to keep it watchable, along with decent work by Ms. Sinise, who's reasonably appealing. Christopher Cazenove ("Eye of the Needle", "A Knight's Tale") is pretty good as the inspector working the case, and the supporting cast (including John Kavanagh as Patricia's co-worker Robert Foxley and Mick Lally as the hearty Uncle Lar) is solid. Effective location shooting and the music by Stanislas Syrewicz further assist in making this as watchable as it is.
For those interested, Ms. Sinise does do some nudity late in the film.
Five out of 10.
"The Fantasist" is ultimately hurt by being overly silly and incredibly trite. It's set up way too obviously to create much suspense, or derive much pleasure from it. Also, Danny's attempts to be quirky and charming just come off as goofy a lot of the time. Bottoms is clearly having fun with this character, but Danny's shtick wears out its welcome early on. The story is plodding and doesn't offer much interest, but at least the distinctive Irish flavor helps to keep it watchable, along with decent work by Ms. Sinise, who's reasonably appealing. Christopher Cazenove ("Eye of the Needle", "A Knight's Tale") is pretty good as the inspector working the case, and the supporting cast (including John Kavanagh as Patricia's co-worker Robert Foxley and Mick Lally as the hearty Uncle Lar) is solid. Effective location shooting and the music by Stanislas Syrewicz further assist in making this as watchable as it is.
For those interested, Ms. Sinise does do some nudity late in the film.
Five out of 10.