‘Diabolique’ Remake More Fun Than Terrifying
The original “Diabolique” is a shocking masterpiece. The remake, which stars Sharon Stone and Isabelle Adjani, is a pretty good time.
Stone plays an irritable math teacher - which is hilarious, since, in her painted-on capri pants and leopard-print bras, you can picture Stone doing trigonometry about as easily as you can picture Mother Teresa sleeping her way to the top. Stone is loving up the boarding school’s abusive headmaster (Chazz Palminteri), who is married to the meek Adjani. She and Stone think the world would be a better place without Palminteri, and they decide to make it happen.
The women’s friendship develops along intriguing lines. Stone, in particular, has a dandy time spitting out her poison-dart dialogue. “I should take him off speed dial,” she roars contemptuously, after she gets good and sick of Palminteri. Stone’s performance is so cold-bloodedly controlling that you get the idea everyone else in the movie does what they do because she told them to.
Certainly that’s the case with Adjani, whose chief asset is her vulnerability. Even better is Kathy Bates, who plays, essentially, Inspector Nosy, a free-lance cop who begins sniffing around for clues when Palminteri disappears. It’s fun to watch Bates and Stone square off - they hate each other on sight and they don’t care who knows it.
If you haven’t seen the original, black-and-white “Diabolique” - which is terrifying - you’ll probably have a fairly good time here. The new version isn’t scary and it suffers from some appallingly crude patches of dialogue (there are four pointless references to the cop’s mastectomy), but director Jeremiah Chechik keeps things zipping along.
Still, it doesn’t quite jell. Some of the dialogue belongs to a wilder, more satiric movie, one in which we all agree that there are people who simply deserve to be murdered. And the acting is all over the map, ranging from broad (white-trash mama Shirley Knight is a Knight in overacting armor) to compellingly theatrical (Bates) to tender and natural (Adjani).
The remake also lacks the original’s nasty, evil logic - the new, twistier ending is a mess. What saves “Diabolique” is the dialogue (Palminteri: “I didn’t have to get married to have lousy sex.”/Adjani: “No. I did.”) and the work of three actresses who are fascinating to watch, even when what they’re doing doesn’t make sense.
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: “DIABOLIQUE” Locations: East Sprague, Newport and Coeur d’Alene Cinemas. Credits: Directed by Jeremiah Chechik; starring Sharon Stone, Isabelle Adjani, Kathy Bates, Chazz Palminteri. Running time: 1:47 Rating: R