WICKED WAYS (1999) *

Michael Rooker is married to the emotionally unstable Rebecca De Mornay.  The only reason he puts up with her crazy antics is because the sex is apparently great.  While he’s away at work, she’s left to her own devices sitting on the couch watching soap operas and going around the house setting booby traps like Macauley Culkin in Home Alone.  Little does she know, he’s living a double life with another wife (Lisa Zane) and a gaggle of kids in another town.  Frustrated and bored, De Mornay begins flirting with her new neighbor (Mark Rolston), which begins giving Rooker an exit strategy from his double life.

Wicked Ways plays like a mash-up of a Lifetime Movie, ‘50s melodrama, and ‘90s neo-noir.  I’m not sure what writer/director Ron Senkowski was trying to say here.  Is he saying domestic life is a prison?  Whatever points he makes are often muddled.  The drama is equally murky as none of the characters are remotely likeable and their problems are more annoying than involving.  His overuse of slow motion is confounding to say the least and only makes things all the more irritating.  The twists and turns the film takes in the third act are predicable too.  The inflated running time (nearly two hours) doesn’t do the movie any favors eithers and the already thin plot spins its wheels throughout.

De Mornay certainly tries.  Her character runs the gamut of conniving sexpot to infantile psycho.  She goes from building forts with furniture and sleeping in a crib to doing provocative dances and dressing up like a dominatrix.  The problem is, we never feel much sympathy for her.  We also never know what Rooker’s character gets out of living his double life.  Poor Rooker gives a thankless performance that is often overshadowed by De Mornay’s wild-eyed histrionics.  Even he can’t save this overlong, convoluted mess.

AKA:  A Table for One.