Deceived (1991)

When her husband (John Heard) is killed in an auto accident, his wife (Goldie Hawn) discovers that her husband kept secrets from her and as she looks into his past, she discovers a labyrinth of betrayal and deceit. Directed by Damian Harris (BAD COMPANY), this thriller covers familiar territory and as the plot unwinds, I got a bit irritated by Hawn's character. She's so damn gullible that I wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her and yell, "What are you doing? Can't you figure out what's going on?". Granted, we're privy to things she doesn't know but when people around you suddenly start dying, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to add two and two. Still, a director with a strong sense of style like Brian De Palma could have easily taken this script and if he couldn't turn it into gold, he would at least have given it some chic. To be fair, Mary Agnes Donoghue's screenplay was tampered with, so perhaps it's not her fault. With Kate Reid, Jan Rubes, Amy Wright, Tom Irwin and Beatrice Straight, whose role as Hawn's mother has been cut down to a "don't blink or you'll miss her" walk on.