Dave’s back at the coalface of ’90s cable movies – and this time he’s unearthed another diamond.
Gene Ralston (Scott Glenn) is a tough-guy cop-turned-wannabe author whose gaze is caught by his stunning new neighbour, Tory (Lara Flynn Boyle). After charming the nubile young beauty, they spend the night together only for him to find her dead the next day. Upon reporting the death, it transpires that not only has Tory never actually resided there, but the house is occupied by a different woman whose home it’s been for the last thirteen months…
A twisting thriller, Graeme Clifford’s PAST TENSE is a masterful exercise in distraction and duplicity. The helmer brings an oppressive vibe to the feature, encapsulating Gene’s frantic state of perpetual bewilderment. Fulsome praise must also be directed towards Miguel Tejada-Flores and Scott Frost. Their intricate, well-crafted and quietly reverential script hooks from the very first scene. Indeed, half the fun of analysing the abundance of neo-noirs that graced video and cable in the ’90s is identifying the classics that influenced them, and there’s an unmistakable pinch of Robert Siodmak’s Phantom Lady (1944) in Past Tense – an accolade in and of itself.
Editor Paul Rubell – who’d go on to cut The Insider (1999), Collateral (2004), and Miami Vice (2006) for Michael Mann – challenges us to keep up with the film’s relentless intensity, switching between past, present and future with captivating authority. Incidentally, Clifford began life in the same trade, with the splicing of Don’t Look Now (1973) and The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) ranking among the Sydney-born filmmaker’s early work.
Among a uniformly strong cast, it’s Anthony LaPaglia who dominates in terms of performance. The Lantana (2001) star plays Larry Talbert: Ralston’s partner, closest friend and confidant.
“What appears to be, could be,” LaPaglia said during a set visit from the Chicago Tribune. “It might be, or it might not be. Usually with scripts, by page twenty I know who did it and why they did it – although I wouldn’t exactly call much of what I’d done intellectual.” [1]
Glenn, meanwhile, is his usual dependable self – and despite the obvious age difference, he’s the ideal love interest for the breathy Boyle.
Produced by Republic Pictures and airing on Showtime on 12th June 1994, Past Tense received mixed reviews in the press. Variety called it “a two-hour white knuckle thriller with plenty of air-gasping moments for viewers” [2], but Entertainment Weekly believed that it “[crumbled] into a messy pile of flashbacks.” [3]
I’m firmly in the camp of the former and in the process of mourning another cracking neo-noir now seemingly stuck in forgotten film purgatory.
USA ● 1994 ● Thriller, TVM ● 91mins
Scott Glenn, Anthony LaPaglia, Lara Flynn Boyle ● Dir. Graeme Clifford ● Wri. Scott Frost & Miguel Tejada-Flores
[1] The Path of Byron by Nancy Mills, Chicago Tribune, 12th June 1994
[2] The Showtime Original Movie, Past Tense by Adam Sandler, Variety, 10th June 1994
[3] Video Review, ‘Past Tense’ by J.R. Taylor, Entertainment Weekly, 7th October 1994
The Schlock Pit 