** CONTAINS SPOILERS **

The truly exquisite Sean Young (who in some scenes, with her hair poofed up, looks something like Elizabeth Taylor) is striking in her opening moments in this film. Sitting in the back of a police car waiting to signal a bust, her face and body are tense and distracted. Unfortunately, once the bust is over Young's strained demeanor never changes. This is one fatally inhibited actress.

One has only to compare Young to the performer playing her coworker and best friend, Arnetia Walker, to grasp what is missing in Young. Walker is open, emotional, and at ease at all times...in that there's no apparent barrier between what she may be feeling and her expression of it. She is an open book. Young, on the other hand, acts in the skittish, self-conscious way you might expect your neighbor to act were they suddenly thrown into starring in a film. Basically, she doesn't have a clue.

With this major void looming at the center of the movie, we're left to ponder the implausiblities of the story. For instance, after Miss Young is kidnapped by the criminal she's trailing and locked in a closet, she breaks the door down when left alone. Granted, she's dressed only in a bra and panties, but in a similar situation, with a psycho captor due to return any moment, would you head for the door...or take the time to go through his dresser, take out some clothes and get dressed? I would guess that this and other scenes are trying to suggest some sort of mixed emotions Miss Young's character is experiencing, but Young can not convey this type of complexity.

There are a few affecting moments in the film, such as the short police interviews with the criminal's past victims, but overall this is an aimless endeavor. It's too bad Miss Young was replaced while filming the pair of comic book style films that might have exploited her limitations with some humor (BATMAN and DICK TRACY), because her floundering while attempting to play actual people is oddly touching. Watching Miss Young try to act, at least in this "thriller", is a sad spectacle.

"Love Crimes" leaves us with many questions that do not get answered during the film. For starters, why does this particular predator, played by Patrick Bergin, demand so much of her attention? None of his victims want to press charges and, really, only the latest was actually assaulted physically. An Assistant District Attorney should know that without these women coming forward, she does not have a true case against Bergin's character. Also, her tape recording Bergin confessing his crime when she first meets him could be seen as entrapment. So again, why is that this case is compelling for Sean's character to want to pursue it?

Next is the cabin sequence. Young follows Bergin to his remote rural cabin by the lake. She is spotted and quickly captured by Bergin who locks her in a closet overnight. Next day, he cuts her clothes off with scissors, leaving Young in her bra and panties. Depending on the version viewed, Bergin locks Young back in the closet where she breaks out and takes some clothes. Another version has Bergin sit Young on the patio while he prepares his gear for a fishing trip on the lake. He, then, gives Young some clothes to wear. My question was, other than for fan service, why cut her clothes off? He had her pistol. He wanted to control her so make her strip herself in front of him. Also, being picky, why let her get dressed again so soon after being stripped by him? It is not like he controls her by the outfit she wears.

Finally, after he has escaped from her, Bergin breaks into Young's apartment. Granted he had held her hostage at his cabin but she did trespass and, technically break and enter there without probable cause or a warrant. He could have gone his own way and would not be pursued by the authorities. Instead, he now compounds his problems by going after Young.

I saw this film at the request of my brother and thought I was going to see a police thriller. I was disappointed there. The only reason the film was not a total flop for me was that Patrick Bergin was a decent actor in the film. He played his character as a predator who felt like he was giving something to these women he preyed on.

Right from the opening credits and the full-blown saxophone score accompanying them, you know what you're in for: a typical erotic thriller of the early 1990's - the most prolific period of the genre. It does stand a little above the crowd because of the ambiguous "villain" - is he indeed a villain or is he really just exposing and satisfying the hidden desires of these (admittedly gullible) women for mutual gain? And the fact that the film was directed by a woman and co-written by another adds an extra layer: are Lizzie Borden and Laurie Frank trying to tell us something about their own secret fantasies? Despite all that, "Love Crimes" never raises the temperature high enough, probably because of the two leads: Patrick Bergin is miscast as a smooth charmer (especially after just coming off "Sleeping With The Enemy" where he played Julia Roberts' abusive husband), and Sean Young is wooden - which actually fits her character at the start. The problem is that she stays wooden even later when she shouldn't be (she is also a little too skinny for my tastes in this one). ** out of 4.