A Dangerous Woman (1993)

This movie is directed by Jake Gyllenhaal's daddy, so you get the nice surprise of seeing Baeke Baellyenhaal riding on a bike with a flippy nineties white boy™ hair cut, tormenting the lead character played by Debra Winger, who may/may not be legally retarded. 

With that out of the way, I have a couple of questions:

1. What is this movie? Lol, no, seriously. Who, like...sat down to write this? This movie falls under the category of But Why? It's like something you watch and you wonder...not exactly "What is the point?", because I firmly believe that a movie is not required to have a point, but it does make you ask "Who would think this was something anyone wanted to see?". It's like you sit down and think Oh! I'm gonna write this screenplay and it's about a woman with like maybe Autism or something vague like that. We don't say she has Autism in the movie, but something is off. The only way she can get a job is if her rich sister pays her salary at the local dry cleaners!! And oh yeah! Her sister married some fifty year old dude when she was sixteen (cool!!) and then he died and now she's having an affair with a married politician! And let's have the movie start with the married politician's wife driving her car through the front of his mistress' house! The mistress being the retarded one's sister, of course! Let's have Barbara Hershey play the sister/mistress/widow of super-old dude, because if you're ever making a movie that makes you go "Wtf okay?" Barb's your girl!! Okay and then also let's have like this random handyman dude! Right away you can tell he's gonna smash both sisters!! Even though one's maybe retarded! Let's have this random handyman be Irish (okay???) and played by Gabriel Byrne who sometimes looks hot, and sometimes looks like an old goblin troll! If he's too, like, Timothy Dalton hot, the audience will feel uncomfortable about him 1. smashing a retard and 2. two sisters in the span of like a day!! If he's lowkey ugly and looks lower class, it's acceptable! Anyway, what else? Oh!!!! OKAY! *vomits* And then there's this, like, thief. Played by cute ass David Strathairn (writes in liner notes for production to cast David Strathairn or throw my screenplay in the GARBAGE!!!!!!!!). David goes with the retard played by Debra Winger's only friend, Nancy from Sid and Nancy and also Monica from Shameless. Anyway, blah blah blah Somethingsomething yadayada Debra ends up stabbing David!!!! And she goes to jail! But omg! She's pregnant! Every1 thinks it's David's baby; that he raped her, but no, actually, she was raped by Gabriel! Cuz Irish!!! Anyway, the movie ends with Barbara and Gabriel bringing Debra's baby to visit her in prsion!! Let's have the movie end with Barbara doing a shitty voice-over contemplating whether or not Gabriel having sex with a mentally challenged woman was "love" and then also at the same time being condescending to her sister, indicating she lowkey believes she doesn't deserve romantic love or can even comprehend, with her tiny little brain, what it means!!!:')))

Oh I said I have a couple of questions lol. So #2, What even was Martha's affliction? She came across as weird at most. I wasn't getting retarded. Maybe being a bit weird was considered retarded back in the nineties? I mean, I can believe it. But I feel like Martha's...situation, is really important. The whole fucking movie is built around it. What's wrong with the bitch?! It makes sense that a family would just keep a weird relative around without thinking too much about diagnosing and all of that. Which is fine, but everyone was kind of acting like she was diagnosed??? I don't recall them mentioning any labels or therapy or drugs or anything, so??? Also, she goes to prison for stabbing David. They only attempt a defense of "He raped her, it was self-defense". I think they mentioned a temporary insanity plea, but only based off the rape thing. They never bring up "Oh, Martha is disabled, so this is why", so?? What's her deal?? Also her thing with Gabriel. It's one thing if Martha is like autistic or has Aspergers and she's having sex with this man, it's another if she has no control of her brain or body really, and can't make mature decisions like that. Idk, this movie was a mess. And I just had no idea wtf they were even going for. It's like the screenplay was typed up from a few ripped-out Mad Libs pages. 

Despite that, it wasn't the worst thing I've ever seen. I thought Debra Winger was good at whatever the fuck she was supposed to be doing. Barbara Hershey and Gabriel Byrne are always interestingish to me, so it was niceish to see them. Maybe this was just like a little character study? But something about its made-4-TV-movie style made me feel like the story needed to be more...typical. It was just weird. But a lot of movies were weird in the eighties and nineties. Just a lot of random shit, so maybe this wasn't as off-base as it seems. Anyway, 6/10 would recommend if only so you can feel as weird, uncomfortable, but lowkey entertained as I was. Also so you can see when Debra Winger gets that makeover and it looks like ABSOLUTE SHIT.