Lolita Davidovich runs into former boyfriend Steve Bauer and starts a steamy affair. Her husband John Lithgow has given up his psychiatric practice to raise their daughter, and she feels neglected as he devotes all his time to their kid. After a fairly bizarre series of dream sequences, she finds out her husband isn't who she thinks he is, kicking off an odyssey of psychotic twins, not-quite-so-dead fathers, murder, child kidnappings and split personalities.I have seen this film a couple of times, and thought it was a brave attempt that didn't really work. I've now watched the new director's cut, and while it fixes some problems ... it still doesn't work. It fixes one major problem by not front-loading a lot of reveals about Lithgow and allowing more of the film to play out as a series of revelations. However, the first part that now focuses on Davidovich, is a fairly incoherent series of scenes of her suddenly waking up and pulling the rug out from under the viewer. Strangely, this cut seems to think that the viewer will be surprised by Lithgow's true nature, but really ... it so badly telescoped that I can't imagine anyone not seeing every surprise coming a mile away.Truth be told ... many De Palma films relay on ridiculous plot twists and silly reveals, but they do so with style and elegance. This film ultimately fails because it substitutes weird, awkward staging and clumsy sequences where you expect elegance.

In 'Raising Cain' Brian DePalma is throwing a tantrum, and has tailored a film that includes all the elements that most of his critics despise. However, he wastes no time in telegraphing his intentions by utilising the very same Saul Bass style titles that were used in 'Psycho'. Carter is a child psychologist whose father, also a psychologist, used him as a test subject to examine the factors by which a young personality can be formed (shades of Michael Powell's 'Peeping Tom').DePalma uses his director's muscle well at times, regardless of all the films obvious flaws. A scene between Cain and Dr. Nix in a motel room uses an approach similar to the high doorknobs in Argento's 'Suspiria', with Dr. Nix being filmed in an obviously undersized set making him larger, and Cain being filmed from an extreme high angle to put him in his place, and it is acted with heightened emotion and overplayed to absurdity… much like the film as a whole.The film is from the get go a web of dreams, and watching '…Cain' and trying to pin down where reality stops, and dream states begin makes Carter / Cain / Dr. Nix / Josh / Margo's schizophrenia uncomplicated in comparison. DePalma turns the film's second act into a maze of dream sequences within flashbacks within fantasies and Jenny spends the rest of the film either waking up in the wrong bed, or dying violently, over and over. Yet, to assure us it all makes perfect sense, DePalma presents one of his long bravura traveling shots (reminiscent of 'Bonfire of the Vanities'), where Dr. Waldheim delivers a long annotated case history. The shot has them walking down stairs and catching elevators without a cut.Melodramatic, broadly acted, with flashbacks/dream sequences and shock edits, and yet it almost feels like a telemovie as DePalma's normal sex and violence is so restrained. '…Cain' references Hitchcock, ('Psycho's' opening credits through to the car submerging in the lake). The climactic sequence at the motel finds DePalma touching base with his 'The Untouchables' (and therefore Eisenstein's 'Battleship Potemkin'). His own 'Dressed To Kill' comes across with the elevator shenanigans, and the final surprise reveal shot is pure Argento 'Tenebre'. The park sequence is a nod to Argento's 'Four Flies On Grey Velvet', and the truck with the sundial suggests an event similar to Argento's 'The Bird With The Crystal Plumage' or 'Tenebre' is about to happen.

Dear Brian De Palma,you once remarked that you had to direct a few big studio films in your career in order to finance the films you genuinely wanted to make. I guess Raising Cain is among the films that you genuinely wanted to make.A middle class married man is being terrorized by his father who wants to steal his kid to use her as a guinea pig in behavioral experiments for the good of science. The man also suffers from a split personality disorder. It was an interesting story. But I am afraid, the film was dreadful. You hid the lack of genuine inspiration and substance in the film with an utterly preposterous (albeit interesting) story, over the top thrills, close ups and long tracking shots. While John Lithgow is a very competent actor, I am not sure he can play the lead and carry a film on his shoulders. He was nowhere as sinister as Margot Kidder in Sisters. Nor did he invoke sympathy like Craig Wasson in Body Double. The sub plot concerning the affair between Lolita Davidovich and Steven Bauer was a needless distraction from the interesting main plot. And unfortunately for you, the film has one of Pino Donaggio's lesser scores.Gabrielle Carteris was quite funny as the cigarette smoking mother. The film did have its share of strange and entertaining supporting characters (like the square mother in the beginning). Davidovich was sexy and her drowning scene was quite scary. And you did tie it all together quite well in the end. The film is not entirely without merit. Some of your hardcore fans are raving about the film on its IMDb message board. But I think the 6/10 rating is one point too high.Best Regards, Pimpin.(5/10)

Jenny, wife of eminent child psychologist Carter Nix, becomes increasingly concerned about her husband's seemingly obsessive concern over the upbringing of their daughter. Her affair with an old flame, however, causes her to neglect her motherly duties.But a spate of local kidnapings forces her to accept the possibility that he may be trying to recreate the twisted mind-control experiments of his discredited psychologist father.Baffling and even considering his CV, this has to be De Palmas most bonkers film, but my goodness, it's a wonderful bonkers movie.Referencing every thing from Hitchcock, to Lynch, to parental fears, Raising Cain is not a good place to start, if you want to seek out De Palma.If you are a veteran to his films though, and appreciate his obsession with Hitchcock, you will find so much to like in this movie.Lithgow is wonderful as the titular characters, and although he loses it slightly toward the end, the interrogation scene is wonderfully acted by Lithgow, and makes the film the gem that it is.The camera-work is what you would expect from the director, and the scene from the police station to the body found in the trunk, is expertly done, and looks seamless.It gets a little confusing every now and again, and it all feels a bit dated, but for De Palma fans, it's a real treat.