Being a big Jodie foster fan the first time i watched this I was a bit disappointed. It seemed a bit slow and boring. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for this type movie.

The next time I watched this movie with my lowered expectations, I found I actually enjoyed it. Really good acting. Great scenery(the first time I'd seen any of New Zealand).

I liked the simple plot. A very young girl in an pre-arranged marriage with a man she has no love for, and who tells her she will spend her entire life with him on this island. This idea she cannot tolerate. By accidentally learning hypnotism, she then hypnotizes and slowly poisons him to death. By hypnotizing him, the posion he is given does not look like it was forced on him, so she is found not guilty of murder. She's free of him and the island.

This isn't Silence of the Lambs, but I think its still worth a watch.

Victoria, a young orphan in late-19th-century New Zealand, enters into an arranged marriage with a wealthy older man; when she comes of age, she leaves the orphanage and goes to live with her husband, who is little more than a stranger to her, and finds married life difficult to face. Her new husband is loutish and chauvinistic, but he has a handsome sensitive younger brother, which complicates the young girl's life. A romantic triangle, tragedy, and mystery ensue; when Oliver, the husband, becomes ill, the cause could be the chemicals he uses to exterminate rats or something more sinister. "Mesmerized," which was originally titled "My Letter to George," is a tidy did-she or didn't-she supposedly based on true events. Co-written and directed by Michael Laughlin, the film may be too slow for some; events unfold at a leisurely pace, but those attuned to PBS dramas or Merchant-Ivory productions may find it to their liking.

Jodie Foster both co-produced and stars as Victoria, the orphaned child bride; her cool impassive demeanor suits the role of an unwilling wife in a loveless marriage. However, her iciness extends a bit too far, and little heat ignites between Foster and Don Shor, who plays the younger brother, George, which undercuts their supposed attraction. John Lithgow breathes life into Oliver, the grizzled insensitive husband; he has some good moments, and his character is more vibrant and alive than that of the cold Victoria. Harry Andrews also does well as Oliver's equally loutish father.

A delicate score by Georges Delerue enhances the period film, and the script, co-written by Jerzy Skolimowski, is well written and literate. A short, well intentioned movie, "Mesmerized" is no classic, but better than average, and boasts a good performance by Lithgow, a fine score by Delerue, and an enigmatic fade-out that will leave viewers pondering, "Did she? Or didn't she?"