Wonderful black comedy about a serial killer that contains more realistic insight into the psychopathic mind than most, allegedly-serious serial killer movies. Trivial slights blown up out of all proportion and used as justifications for murder. An obsession with appearing morally-perfect by pointing out the minor imperfections of others in the hope that these latter will occult ones own wrongdoing. Playing with the phobias of others in order to make those others' lives miserable.
The director (John Waters) is skewering the pettiness of White, middle-class suburban life and the ennui that allows people to create a celebrity out of their local murderer simply because their lives are so empty. Here we have a culture that lacks anything positive to praise so praises the negative. Moreover, the brightly-lit mise en scène perfectly captures the prettiness of the social milieu presented in order to create the strong contrast with what is really happening just below the surface that drives the films plot throughout.
Kathleen TURNER is simply brilliant in the role and makes the unpleasantness palatable so that film does not become the bad taste gore-fest it could so easily have become. Sam WATERSTON is out of his depth and has no real idea how to play the husband of a serial killer; unbalancing the drama. This is a comic version of The Killer Inside Me.
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