Parents' Guide to Inconceivable

This '90s-style domestic thriller isn't campy enough (despite Cage, who for once should have let loose with a scenery-chewing performance) to be a guilty pleasure or good enough to be a true homage. Inconceivable screenwriter Chloe King is the daughter of Zalman King -- a specialist in hard-R, sexually graphic psychological thrillers in the '80s and '90 -- and wrote for his Red Shoe Diaries series, so it's no wonder the movie's dialogue is melodramatic. Debut director Jonathan Baker's pacing is uneven, and there are sequences in which viewers don't quite understand what's happening on screen (and not in a clever way). He also unnecessarily gives himself a supporting role as Barry, a close friend of Angela and Brian's who pops up at a few key moments. While it's a director's prerogative whether to appear in his own film, Baker's acting is amateurish and distracting.

As for Gershon, she at least tries to make the best of messy material as the conned mother of the story. Whelan seems to be having fun with her villainous part, but her delivery of certain important lines will make audiences laugh unintentionally. The less said about Linda, the buxom personal trainer, the better, and it's frankly shocking that Faye Dunaway has been reduced to playing the nosy, suspicious grandmother. Clearly she and on-screen son Cage -- and perhaps the entire cast -- did this one for the paycheck. Those looking for better "crazy, vengeful woman" movies (as offensive as they might now seem), should just stick to the '80s and '90s originals.