|
|
twisted
COPS AT BAY
Ashley Judd as San Francisco detective Jessica Shepard - above with partner Mike Delmarco (Andy Garcia).
“This is definitely not your classic ‘woman in danger’ movie,” says the Kentucky-born actress, whose sister is the top-selling country artist Wynonna Judd. “It has lots of twists, not to mention an incredibly well-rounded female lead who is ready to take on the sexual double-standard and to stand up to any man who challenges her. She’s just fabulous, and I love how her toughness doesn’t eclipse her vulnerability.”
“The film has a sexually charged complexity about it that makes it a very unique mystery,” adds Kaufman who, as director of the award-winning The Unbearable Lightness of Being, is no stranger to sexually charged complexity. “There are no stereotypes in terms of men and women, no clear paths leading to suspects, and neither the audience nor the main character is sure who the killer is all the way up until the final few sequences.”
In Twisted, Judd plays top Bay Area cop Jessica Shepard, who is working on a serial-killer case when men she has slept with suddenly start becoming the victims. As both her mentor, police commissioner Mills (Samuel L Jackson), and her partner, Mike Delmarco (Andy Garcia), begin to act strangely towards her, Jessica begins to wonder herself whether she may not be the killer.
Police procedure being what it is, she soon finds herself in the office of the SFPD’s resident psychiatrist, Melvin Frank (David Strathairn) - a development which does nothing to dispel her or our doubts about her guilt.
“Dr Frank is a doctor whose office is really the only place fellow officers can unload their problems,” says Strathairn, who has often found himself cast in a ‘listening’ role opposite some of Hollywood’s top female stars, such as Meryl Streep in The River Wild and Jessica Lange in Losing Isaiah. But here, the conversations are decidedly ambiguous.
“While he’s exploring Jessica’s behaviour,” continues Strathairn, “he observes her looking more and more haggard. She’s a tough nut to crack - very reticent to let go of what’s inside her - and I think that will give audiences a certain amount of suspicion about whether or not she’s aware of her deteriorating condition, not just physically, but emotionally and psychologically, too.”
|
|
|
