`FINAL ANALYSIS' IS A THRILLER WITH FIRST-RATE PERFORMANCES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 8, 1992                   TAG: 9202080340
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CHRIS GLADDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
`FINAL ANALYSIS' IS A THRILLER WITH FIRST-RATE PERFORMANCES
"Final Analysis," is a sleek, enjoyable suspense thriller that pokes fun at psychiatry while it pays tribute to James M. Cain and Alfred Hitchcock.
Like most entries in the genre, its plot is too elaborate and convoluted to be entirely convincing. That goes with the territory. But director Phil Joanu and Writer Wesley Strick seldom allow it to be anything less than cannily constructed entertainment with an elegant veneer.
Strick wrote the screenplay for "Cape Fear," and he brings some of the same kind of insidious humor - sometimes barely perceptible - to this picture. And Joanu is a formidable visual stylist who makes references to Hitchcock movies while retaining his own hazy, film noir tone.
Richard Gere plays Dr. Isaac Barr, a San Francisco psychoanalyst who can't leave his work at the office. Despite Freud's admonitions, a cigar is never just a cigar to him.
Barr is treating a troubled young woman named Diana as the movie begins. Played by Uma Thurman, she's an obsessive-compulsive who can't face her troubled past.
Enter her sister, played by Kim Basinger. Her name is Heather, and she thinks she has the keys to unlock the past that Diana is suppressing. Dr. Barr finds Heather irresistible, and Heather is attracted to the psychoanalyst as well. The trouble is, she's married to a gangster (Eric Roberts) who abuses her. Still, Heather and Dr. Barr become involved in a torrid affair despite his better judgment. He even checks out his profession's code of ethics to see if there's anything about sleeping with a patient's sister.
The performances are first-rate. Gere is solid as the almost smug psychoanalyst who thinks he can figure out everyone and who is blind-sided by his self-confidence. This is one of Basinger's more substantial roles, and she carries it off well. Thurman is intriguing as a mysterious loose canon. And Roberts is typically good as the arrogant, coarse gangster.
"Final Analysis" ***: A Warner Brothers release at Valley View Mall 6 (362-8219) and Salem Valley 8 (389-0444). Rated R for nudity, violence, language and sexual content. Two hours.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB