The Break Up Reviews

This small-scale thriller features a better-than-average cast marking time. Jimmy (Bridget Fonda) — short for James; her parents wanted a boy — has a plan to escape her volatile husband Frankie (Hart Bochner), who once beat her so badly that she's permanently deaf. She's socking away money in a secret savings account and making nice until the right moment presents itself, and then she's going to run. Unfortunately, Jimmy and Frankie have a knock-down, drag-out first, and he pushes down a flight of stairs. When she wakes up at the hospital, detectives Box (Kiefer Sutherland, looking pale and porky) and Ramsey (Steven Weber) are waiting; she claims she had an accident in the house, and has no explanation as to why she was found 18 blocks away. Box and Ramsey return a few days later, after Jimmy has taken refuge at her sister Shelley's (Leslie Stefanson) place; Frankie's body has been found in his car, burned beyond recognition. And it soon becomes apparent that they think Jimmy did it, an impression that's strengthened when she bolts from the police station. Jimmy suspects her sister after she finds her bank account raided and a polaroid of Shelley and Frankie hidden in the dresser, until she finds Shelly bludgeoned to death in her own bathroom. Afraid that Frankie is still alive, Jimmy hits the road with Box (who's inclined to believe she's innocent ) and Ramsey (who isn't) in hot pursuit. A touch of SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY here, a dash of DOUBLE JEOPARDY there... there's nothing especially original going on here, but Fonda delivers a nice, subdued performance as the battered Jimmy. Tippi Hedren has a small role as Jimmy's mom, Penelope Ann Miller plays a deluded waitress and Steven Weber (TV's Wings) is almost unrecognizable as the swinish Ramsey.