The Proposition 1997

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The Proposition ★★ Tempting Fate; Shakespeare's Sister 1997 (R)

Convoluted and clunky story centering on wealthybutsterile Boston industrialist Hurt and his feminist writer wife Stowe, who decide to hire a surrogate (Harris) to get Stowe pregnant. But faltering priest Branagh, whom the couple consult, has some concerns. After the surrogate is murdered, the melodrama starts to fly and the movie plays out like a daytime soap opera, complete with dirty little secrets and earthshaking revelations dropped with the sublety usually reserved for an anvil on Wile E. Coyote. Hurt and Stowe give their characters a little fire, but everybody else seems to be wandering around on their own little acting planet. 115m/C VHS, DVD . Pamela Hart, Kenneth Branagh, William Hurt, Madeleine Stowe, Blythe Danner, Neil Patrick Harris, Robert Loggia, Josef Sommer, David Byrd; D: Leslie Linka Glatter; W: Rick Ramage; C: Peter Sova; M: Stephen Endelman.

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