Dealyed Reaction: Betrayed

What I Guessed It Was About:  Let's see. The poster for it is a man and a woman with a burning cross in between them. I'm going to assume that there were more than a few comparisons to Mississippi Burning made in the reviews.

How I Came Into It: I had very little idea what this was. I thought I was watching the wrong movie several times. I don't really know what Debra Winger looks like, so I couldn't use her as an indicator. I briefly thought I'd recorded The Fisher King when it started with the talk radio host. Then there's the fact that I just watched Deceived and didn't appreciate John Heard popping up in this too.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) I was interested in the moments when the movie doesn't try to over-vilify the KKK. It is an awful group and the people are awful, racist pieces of crap. There's a mundane-ness to them as well though. I believe there's one scene that's a group picnic where everything about it is completely droll except there's a burning cross somewhere. The dullness of it intrigued me. Normally the decision is to go super arch about it. Oh, and there's something hilarious and horrifying about the adorable little girl saying awful racist things. The words simply don't make sense coming from her mouth.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: Remember how I praised the movie for not being too broad two sentences ago? Yeah, there were moments of that kind of restraint. Then, the rest of the time it's as simple a look at KKK types as you could find. I'm not saying I need to sympathize with the Klan, but it's not narratively interesting for them to be this broad. Up to the moment Tom Berenger brings Debra Winger on the hunt, it's just a boring love story. After that, it's a cartoonish love story. Am I supposed to believe she could actually be falling for him? Really? If he was benignly racist on the side, I guess I could see it. When you are hunting minorities for sport: That's a dealbreaker, ladies. All having her still be torn does is make me dislike the protagonist. And, remember when she kills a guy and her boss is like "That's cool. It keeps your cover"? This is tone deaf, unrealistic, and absurd on almost every level.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend