This film; which again pairs Richard Gere and Kim Basinger (who starred in 1986's No Mercy); offers up elements of classic noir: a hapless man becomes intimately involved with a beautiful blonde who may or may not be who or what she appears to be. Dedicated psychiatrist Isaac Barr (Gere) reluctantly; and then more obsessively; becomes involved with Heather Evans (Basinger); the sister of his patient; Diana Baylor (Uma Thurman). Evans is unhappily married to a gangster (appropriately played by a muscular and menacing Eric Roberts in a trademark role). Gere and Basinger make a credible; if dangerous couple; and Thurman delivers a subtle; understated performance and demonstrates her range and potential.

The thriller is appropriately shot in gorgeous San Francisco; where the literal and figurative curving and hilly roads wind throughout. Credit legendary art director Dean Tavoularis for some amazing sets and scenes; notably the elegantly cavernous restaurant where Evans and her husband have a fateful dinner.

This film is; in a way; glossy director Phil Joanou's Hitchcockian tribute--as a climactic lighthouse scene best demonstrates. Final Analysis doesn't offer an intimate look at its characters; but a beautifully stylized one; moody and gloomy. The intricate plot experiments with the device of "pathological intoxication;" in which the subject completely loses control after drinking alcohol. And this doesn't mean a conventional ugly drunk; it means a frightening psychotic. Good and evil; hope and despair; beauty and repulsion are often juxtaposed in the film's complex world. --N.F. Mendoza