Mortal Thoughts

Working at Joyce's Clip 'N' Dye beauty parlor in Bayonne, New Jersey, childhood friends Joyce (Glenne Headly) and Cynthia (Demi Moore) fill their days comparing notes on their marriages. Cynthia's husband, boring but dedicated Arthur, is a delight compared to Joyce's Jimmy (Bruce Willis), a boorish lout who is so aggressive and abusive that almost everyone he meets wishes he'd drop dead. So when Jimmy is murdered and dropped in a ditch, the police investigation, led by Detective John Woods (Harvey Keitel), naturally centers on those who knew him best-his wife, Joyce, and her best friend, Cynthia. Told in flashback alternating with the police interrogation of Cynthia, this small, resolutely dark thriller about domestic violence uses Alan Rudolph's keen direction and Mark Isham's atmospheric score to frame a richly nuanced study of friendship and betrayal.