(3 of 3)
Bridges must have spent a lot of time recently watching bad French movies. Every cliché of existential anomie — the aimless driving, the heavy smoking, the elliptical dialogue, the motel-room angst — has been imported to the seedier suburbs of Los Angeles. Saddest of all is the use to which Winger, who shares laurels with Sissy Spacek as the most affecting and natural of Hollywood's bright young actresses, has been put. Forced to play a woman with no past and little presence, who is part blah and part blasé, Winger discards her quirky charms to walk through the movie like a puzzled zombie. Did she do Mike's Murder as a favor to Bridges, who in Urban Cowboy gave Winger her first meaty role? It looks more like penance. — R.C.