THE CRUSH
US, 1993, 99 minutes, Colour.
Alicia Silverstone, Cary Elwes, Jennifer Rubin, Kurtwood Smith.
Directed by Alan Shapiro.
The Crush is a thriller reminiscent of melodramas like Play Misty for Me, a kind of junior Fatal Attraction. The film is a star vehicle for English actor Cary Elwes (Another Country, Oxford Blues, Princess Bride, Days of Thunder). Alicia Silverstone is the young femme fatale.
The film has a Vancouver setting, Elwes as a 28-year-old journalist who becomes the victim of the crush by the precocious daughter of the family from whom he rents a cottage. The film builds up to a highly melodramatic finale - and a twist ending.
1.The appeal of this kind of battle of the sexes melodrama? Play Misty for Me, Fatal Attraction...? Thriller, melodrama? The credibility of characters and interactions? Conventions of the genre?
2.The luxury house and the cottage? The world of the magazine? Normal work, heightened world? Darian's room and the attic and the carousel? The musical score, songs and creation of mood?
3.The title, the focus on Darian's attitudes, obsessions, relationship with Nick?
4.Nick as the focus, age, experience, travelling to Vancouver, arrival, his job, searching for accommodation, the accident with Darian, accepting the offer of the cottage, discussion with the Forresters? Settling in, easy life, the invitation to the party, Darian's pressure and manipulation, the kiss and his reaction? Amy warning him?
5.Darian and her age, precocious intellectually and emotionally? Wealth? Study? Her attitude towards Nick, the initial accident, enticing him to stay, manipulating him at the party, the kiss? Stealing his photo? Nick searching her room, knowing he was there, her stripping? Her covering his presence by pretending about the book borrowing? Her carousel in the attic? Her father's obsessiveness towards her? The obscenity on Nick's car, observing and becoming more and more obsessed? Her friendship with Cheyenne, Cheyenne warning Nick and Darian causing the riding accident? Her jealousy, seeing him with Amy, blanking out his disk (after writing his piece for him)? Her altar and the candles? Her knowledge of wasps and trapping Amy?
6.Nick and his growing suspicions, the photo, searching Darian's room, hiding, her provocative behaviour, the borrowing of the book and his being indebted to her? The discovery of the altar, the carousel in the attic? The sprayed car, discussing Darian with her parents and their refusal to listen? The warnings from Cheyenne? Her accident, the empty disk, the wasps? His decision to leave, searching for an apartment - and his sudden arrest?
7.Nick at work, the investigations, the editor? Amy and her photography? His difficulties in writing - and Darian fixing his article for him? The empty disk, Amy covering for him and the rewrite? Arrest, the editor bailing him out and sacking him?
8.Amy, her work, the relationship, Darian seeing them together in bed? The wasps?
9.Cheyenne and telling Nick about Darian's diary? The melodrama with Cheyenne tied to the carousel in the attic, Darian and her accusations?
10.The build-up to the climax, Mr Forrester's previous attack on Nick at the time of his arrest, the attack in the attic, Cheyenne and the rescue, Nick punching Darian - and the emergence of the truth?
11.The postscript with Darian beginning a fixation on her psychiatrist?
