David Ansen

“…. Why make it again? When Jack Nicholson and Jessican Lnage have their first sexual encounter--a no-holds barred mating on the kitchen table--it seems director Rafelson… and playwright David Mamet want ot do directly to the core of Cain's sadomasochistic sexuality with a freedom earlier filmmakers were denied. Sex and violence--and how they merge--will be the subject itself.

“If that was their intention, they haven't pulled it off….

“…. [Nicholson's] too innately sly an actor to be playing a victim of passion. Jessica Lange, however, shows that she might turn into an actress of some range. Her pale, thin-lipped beauty catches glimpses of the haunted, hungry Midwestern girl Cain had in mind, though her part is underdeveloped….”

David Ansen
Newsweek, March 23, 1981