Before Catherine & Carly She was Casey
Just before her mother passed away she handed Casey (Sharon Stone - Above the Law) a letter, asking her to visit Britain and give it to Lord Richard Bredon (Paul Daneman) and no one else. On arriving at the vast Bredon family home Casey meets Michael (Christopher Cazenove - Zulu Dawn), Bredon's charming son who immediately falls for the beautiful American. Unfortunately Lord Bredon refuses to accept the letter and denies ever having known Casey's mum. That is until he discovers that Michael and Casey have fallen in love.
Whilst I am sure these days it would be seeing Sharon Stone top the cast list which might tempt people in to watching "Tears in the Rain" I am sure there would be those with a fondness for slushy, over the top romantic melodramas which would watch and enjoy it for the storyline. In fact I have to admit that whilst the word ridiculous doesn't quite feel enough to describe the storyline in "Tears in the Rain" there is something about this melodramatic romantic nonsense that I quite enjoyed, keeping me watching right to the end.
So as to that storyline; well of course a big part of "Tears in the Rain" appears to be quite obvious as when Casey and Michael end up falling for each other, and yes falling in to his bed, you know that we are being led to wonder whether they are in fact brother and sister, yet you equally suspect that there could be a twist. It is the twist part of the storyline which is where "Tears in the Rain" simply becomes ridiculous as it does a Chubby Checker, we get the twist and then we twist again. But whilst the second twist is magically plucked out of the air to give the movie a romantic happy every after ending, did you really suspect anything else, the first of those revelations ties in to a flashback story which takes us to WWII and Richard's relationship with not only Casey's mother but also the woman he went on to marry. It is again a bit ridiculous but it has a bit of nostalgic romantic charm about it with meetings at night when there is bombing going on.
As for the acting well to be honest "Tears in the Rain" is the sort of movie where the direction seems to have been act romantic, look angry, be giggly and of course cry. But the thing is that Sharon Stone brings some charm to her part of Casey and certainly makes her appealing whilst Christopher Cazenove does the dashing English gent with such ease that you wonder whether if he is even acting. Plus to be honest the two of them looked like they had a bit of fun making the movie.
What this all boils down to is that "Tears in the Rain" is on one hand a bit of cheesy, romantic melodrama which gets more ridiculous the longer it goes on. But on the other there is something surprisingly watchable about it with a lot of the entertainment coming from what Sharon Stone and Christopher Cazenove bring to the movie.
