Cold Heaven

Nicolas Roeg’s tenth feature–rather freely adapted by Allan Scott (who also produced) from a novel by Brian Moore–is characteristically portentous and provocative, beautifully edited and lyrically enigmatic. Roeg’s wife, Theresa Russell, who has starred in four other Roeg films, plays the adulterous wife of a doctor (Mark Harmon) having an affair with another doctor (James Russo) while they’re attending a conference in Mexico. Her husband apparently dies in a boat accident, but his body mysteriously disappears from a local hospital; back in California she travels to Carmel, reencounters her husband, and investigates a vision that may be connected with her husband’s apparent death and resurrection. If you like thrillers with tidy denouements, this may not be your cup of tea. But Roeg’s grasp of his material never ceases to be serious and suggestive, and it carries echoes of such transcendental art movies as Stromboli and Vertigo. With Talia Shire, Richard Bradford, and Will Patton (1991). A Chicago premiere. (Facets Multimedia Center, 1517 W. Fullerton, Friday and Saturday, August 21 and 22, 7:00 and 9:00; Sunday, August 23, 5:30 and 7:30; and Monday through Thursday, August 24 through 27, 7:00 and 9:00; 281-4114) Read more