I Watch 'Em So You Don't Have To

Old Movies Revisited Just For The Fun Of It 


Raising Cain (1992)

Anybody who doesn't like John Lithgow, raise your hands. Okay, now get off my damn page. Just kidding. John has always been fun to watch, and as an actor is definitely a massive cut above the rest. Even in bad movies, he's still good. Even if you're going to dun him for being in a massive stinker like Buckaroo Bonzai, to be fair you also have to hate Christopher Lloyd, Peter Weller, Jeff Goldblum, Clancy Brown and Ellen Barkin. So there. This is a really good psychological thriller by Brian DePalma, and Lithgow was very busy, playing five roles in it.

'Carter'

Raising Cain was just one of those films so well done you enjoy and still get surprises every time you watch it. The basic premise: Dr. Carter Nix is a child psychologist who is taking time off to be with his young daughter. He keeps a camera on her at all times which worries his wife, as she thinks he is more 'studying' her than raising her. While giving another mother and her small child a ride home, he chloroforms her, but panics when joggers approach the car. Cain appears in sunglasses and leather jacket, telling his wimp 'brother' to kiss her and make it look good, so the joggers pass. Cain tells him to 'go home' and he'll take care of everything. Carter can't stand up to him so he does. It doesn't take one long though, although it is very well done and Lithgow is just fantastic that Cain IS Carter. We have a case of multiple personalities at work here. Now true multiples are extremely rare - a person might have 'split' personalities, but to have mulitples almost never happens. Except to poor Carter.

'Cain'

Meanwhile his dissatisfied and suspicious wife is gallivanting with a handsome man, a widower of one of her patients. Carter sees and is devastated. Cain sees and only sees an opportunity to pass blame for the mothers (or babysitters) they've killed to get the kids. The goal is to take five young children to Carter's father, the renowned (and infamous) Dr. Nix, Sr. who was charged with doing experiments on children 20 years before but jumped bail and the country to Oslo, Norway where he apparently couldn't be extradited. According to Norway authorities, he committed suicide 18 years ago, although his body was never found. He is actually back in the states and wants his 'sons' to get new subjects for another 'study'. Carter doesn't want to, but Cain gives him no choice.

Jenny - not near as good a personality.

Cain frames Jack, the man Carter's wife Jenny was sleeping with, by putting the bodies in his car trunk. But they quickly discover the ruse when Jenny, who Cain thought he had murdered and sunk into a lake in her car, shows up and tells all. But she doesn't know all. We need somebody else for that. Enter Dr. Lynn Waldheim, who had worked with Dr. Nix, Sr. 20 years ago until she became suspicious about how precise and detailed his raw data was. He even wrote a book: Raising Cain, The Creation and Evolution Of the Multiple Personality. She couldn't prove that he was actually performing experiments on real kids and never met his son, but couldn't stick with him anymore and testified against him in court. Now sick with cancer, she shows up in a bad wig which she hates, and meets Carter. 

The doc reaches out to 'Josh'.

She is shocked how he is an exact copy of his father. In an interrogation room she attempts to ask Carter questions, but being in abject fear, she instead meets 'Josh' a frightened 7 year old who warns her that 'Margo' is coming. This is where Lithgow is just perfect. 'Josh' passes out and the Dr. wakes him up hoping to talk to Carter. Now he only changes his posture slightly, his facial expression and hand movements and doesn't say a word, but it's so good you know instantly you're looking at 'Margo'. Pure genius. At this point the doctor now knows for certain: the son of a bitch Dr. Nix, Sr. traumatized his own son so he would develop multiple personalities. Carter is the 'Cain' of the book he wrote. She attempts to talk to Margo but instead Margo knocks her out, steals her clothes and slips out of the police station. The detectives are asleep in their office (?!?!?) but Jenny is smoking out in the lobby and sees the 'Dr.' walk out. She calls out but gets no response so she follows 'her'. The destination is a motel and she finally calls the detectives (bit of a duh but oh well).

Dr. Nix, Sr. - for real.

Things get both fast and slow at this point as way too much stuff is happening at once in a small space, but basically Jenny discovers that not only is Dr. Nix, Sr. (also John Lithgow) very much alive, he indeed manipulated his son to split his personalities, and used him to gather his new 'subjects' for study. He holds her daughter hostage, trying to get away. Here we see Margo, who either Carter is fighting or is just plain pissed at the Dr., help by stabbing the doctor in the back. 'She' then disappears as the children are rescued and the Dr. Nix, Sr. is dead for good this time.

'Margo'

The last scene is Jenny with her daughter at the park. She's telling a girlfriend that she is living with Jack and life is good. Carter is still at large, though. As they're talking we hear the daughter being called out to by someone in the bushes. She goes to see who. The mother, seeing her go, follows. She finds her and the daughter says 'daddy's here'. Being a movie, the mother doesn't believe her, despite her daughter's insistence that yes, daddy was in the park. As Jenny bends to pick her up we see 'Margo', now in full drag standing behind her (looking better than I ever did dammit). The end. 

This movie was so cool that some of the convenient plot devices and uneven action doesn't even bother you. Just watch it, enjoy one of John's finest performances (of all five people), and see if you can pick something new from it even if you've seen it before. A great movie all around.