Hysterical Blindness

• DVD Details: Actors: Uma Thurman, Juliette Lewis, Gena Rowlands, Justin Chambers, Ben Gazzara
• Directors: Mira Nair, Laura Cahill
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC. Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 ; Number of discs: 1; Studio: Lions Gate
• DVD Release Date: June 1, 2004 ; Run Time: 99 minutes

Firefighter Patrick Sullivan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) finds his life turned upside-down when his fiancée suddenly calls off their pending nuptials per the recommendation of radio love guru Dr. Emma Lloyd (Uma Thurman). Determined to get back at this "love doctor," Sullivan forges a fake marriage license, "accidentally" marrying him to Emma,who's already engaged to Richard (Colin Firth). But as Patrick's charms begin to wear Emma down, she must decide which of these bachelors is her "Mr. Right." Also starring Sam Shepard, Justina Machado and Isab! ella Rossellini in this romantic comedy that proves even the experts need to learn a few love lessons now and then.Doctor, heal thyself! That's the wry message underscoring the charming romantic comedy The Accidental Husband, which features Uma Thurman as Emma, a radio "love doctor" who can't quite seem to manage her own love life off the air. The cast is splendid, led by Thurman, who has rarely gotten to show her comic chops, and who really is very funny and has a gift for physical comedy as well. The two bachelors whose lives are accidentally (on purpose?) entangled with hers are played by two dreamboats, Jeffrey Dean Morgan (rugged firefighter Patrick) and Colin Firth (her fiancé, Richard). The chemistry between Emma and both suitors is crackling and captured well on film by director Griffin Dunne. Thurman, Morgan, and Firth are joined by a supporting cast every bit as spot-on as they are: Sam Shepard, Brooke Adams, Isabella Rossellini, Sarita Choudhury, and Keir! Dullea, each of whom brings his or her own quirks and charms.! The Accidental Husband is very much in the mode of Four Weddings and a Funeral and the Bridget Jones films--which is to say, make a date with it for your next date night. --A.T. HurleyUma Thurman and Juliette Lewis, two of today's most sensational actresses, tackle what it was to be single in the 80's in a new movie with a terrific 80's soundtrack. It's 1987 in Bayonne, New Jersey. The bars are full and smoky and Debby (Thurman) and Beth (Lewis) are out looking for a good time. Debby is searching for the kind of love they sing about in songs, the kind that lasts forever. What she can't see is that most guys are only looking for a love that lasts one night. From Mira Nair, director of Monsoon Wedding and Mississippi Masala. Uma Thurman is painful to watch in Hysterical Blindness--and that's a compliment. Thurman completely gives herself over to her trashy character, a pathetically self-deluding good-time girl who hangs out in a tavern in Bayonne, N! ew Jersey, circa 1987. She occupies the bar stool next to her best bud (a dead-on Juliette Lewis), willing herself to believe that an obviously indifferent pick-up is Mr. Right. Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding) directed this familiar but nicely-rendered HBO production; her visual style, full of obscured sightlines and opaque glass, emphasizes the heroine's inability to see clearly. Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazzara, as Thurman's mom and her gentleman suitor, add an echo of Cassavetes realism. But it's Thurman's tour de force, capturing the kind of lost soul whose idea of first-date chat is to break an awkward silence by boasting about her best sexual skill. She will make you cringe. --Robert Horton