In early 1990s many Hollywood thrillers had plots almost indistinguishable from Star Trek episodes dealing with seemingly idyllic and perfect paradise planets. The only difference was in false perfection being embodied in individual rather than place - perfect children, perfect lovers, perfect spouses, perfect nannies and perfect neighbours almost always turned too good to be true and in the end protagonists had to encounter their diabolical side. This formula was, like everything else, exploited by low budget filmmakers, but the results weren't always predictable. Nice example for that could be found in Past Tense, 1994 thriller directed by Graeme Clifford. Plot, based on the screenplay by Scott Frost and Miguel Tejada-Flores, deals with Gene Ralston (played by Scott Glen), policeman who can't fail to notice beautiful young woman (played by Lara Flynn Boyle) moving into his neighbourhood. Soon, their neighbourly relations get to new level, but only few hours later Ralston is going to find woman dead. This is only the first in the series of bizarre and confusing events that would turn Ralston's life into nightmare.
Past Tense follows the 1990s thriller formula, but only in the beginning. After a while, viewers become aware that this film represents something different, mostly due to the really unpredictable and sometimes bizarre plot twists. Director Graeme Clifford, whose talent for creating suspense was wasted in Ruby Cairo, also showed great skill. Another asset of this film was used in actors. Always reliable Scott Glenn was nicely paired with much younger Lara Flynn Boyle, again in the role of femme fatale, but this time with extra erotic dimension. Of course, the ending of the film is weak as usual, but Past Tense nevertheless represents pleasant little surprise for all those who expected nothing than low budget genre exploitation.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on August 15th 2002)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/189297-past-tense?language=en-US
Critic: AA
