Linda Fiorentino has played a couple of self-absorbed seductresses, in "Jade" and "The Last Seduction", and she was extremely good, especially in that last, semi-comic role as an exploitative nympho. Here, she's a scientist investigating the transfer of memory by means of fluid extraction from the brain one the donor into the arm of the receiver. She's pretty good here too, and it was a surprise because she'd seemed made for the more treacherous roles. No kidding. As the principled doctor here, she's sometimes frightened and often wide-eyed with bemusement. Not exactly Alice in Wonderland but not Selene either.Ray Liotta is the medical examiner whose pregnant wife has been murdered and he begins to self administer the serum in order to recapture the experiences of the murder victim. It leads to more than he bargained for. It puts all sorts of unbearable strain on his heart and he undergoes all the emotions associated with being murdered. (Evidently, your life flashes before your eyes as you expire.) It's an interesting premise. I wonder if it wasn't inspired by a controversial experiment done in the late 50s or early 60s (I'm too lazy to look it up) involving flatworms and a Y-shaped maze. The experimenters trained a flatworm to find food at the end of the maze, then they chopped up the flatworm and fed it to a second flatworm in a kind of Planaria pate, and the second flatworm learned the maze more quickly than controls.The premise is full of promise but the story is knee-capped by its obvious desire to become just another action thriller with blood splattering all over the walls and pokers bashing in heads and Ray Liota taking the drug and writhing all over the floor like Jeykll turning into Hyde.The story is sometimes confusing too because, at times, Liota's own flashbacks are interpolated into the flashbacks of a couple of murder victims, so it's hard to tell whose memory (or insight) we're witnessing. Too bad it's so sloppily done.It ends with a monumental explosion and a house afire and Liota trying to rescue an unconscious body and a tape recording at the same time, while Fiorentino and a gorgeous Kim Cattral watch helplessly. At the final fade, Liota gets to spend an indefinite amount of time playing with his two cute little girls in such sunshine as the Seattle climate allows.

This roller coaster of a thriller is a powerful assault on the viewer's nerves. Ray Liotta is the puzzled hero who was acquitted of killing his wife but has no idea who really did it. Liotta, here in a sympathetic role, has kind eyes and likes kids, so is far from being the villain he sometimes plays. I am somewhat puzzled by the actress Jenafor Ryane, who plays Liotta's sister-in-law in this film and has the custody of his children. Am I going mad? Or is she really Jenny Franks aka Jenny Anderson aka Jenny Price? After all, IMDb has no biographical information about her at all. Does Jenafor Ryane exist? The question is: Who Framed Jenafor Rabbit? Or is that too sci fi a question? Linda Fiorentino is the winsome love interest here, looking very cute as a scientist who has invented a new technique of transplanting selected memories of traumatic incidents (what are known to neuroscientists as 'amygdala memories' because they are laid down in the amygdala of the brain, though this is not mentioned in the film) by injections of neuro-transmitters, etc, and there are excellently directed and filmed sequences of a cat chasing mice through a maze, some taken at mouse level. There is a certain amount of technical banter about this to give it credibility. The serum having only been tested on rats in the lab, Liotta hastily injects himself in a madcap attempt to try to find out who murdered his wife. He survives, even though Linda Fiorentino keeps telling him it will damage his heart and kill him. The plot thickens, and thickens again, and thickens again. Peter Coyote is suitably ominous and creepy as a cop who knows more than he lets on. Kim Coates as a druggie villain is super-sleazy, rather terrifying. John Dahl directed this fast-paced and nail-biting film.

Ray Liotta as a forensic examiner who discovers he can experience and thereby solve his wife's murder by injecting himself with cerebral spinal fluid from those involved. Dahl's direction is leaden and every character is dull. Linda Fiorentino fans will find nothing here. By the time it's over you may wish you can siphon some CSF from people who saw a better movie that night and mix it with some of Fiorentino's cocktail, grab a syringe, flex your arm...Seriously though, it's a pretty cool story that would have been more successful as a novel. Hey, what's with Kim Cattrall playing a non-sexpot supporting character?

I was really surprised at the quality of this thriller. Ray Liotta stars. Why didn't I ever hear about it? What a thrilling surprise. Try it if you like sci-fi new-formula medical stuff that requires intelligent imagination. Lots of twists and turns. Buy the premise and you'll love the movie.