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Raising
Cain (1992)
 
Review
Raising Cain is a fun little
excursion in and toying with narrative conventions, but the director
Brian De Palma ultimately goes so overboard that his intended
satirical edge dies a little. The story itself, about a clinically
insane husband and loving father named Carter Nix (John Lithgow) and
his seemingly devious plans, is essentially cheesy melodrama stewed
together with De Palma's usual psy-thriller sensibilities. Lithgow's
extravagant lead performance is the movie's best and most enjoyable
asset, regardless of your take on the narrative frenzy we're taken
through.
Raising Cain may well be the culmination, or the tipping point
if you like, of De Palma's careerlong delve into various forms of mental
illness and deviating eroticism, almost like the even more twisted
sibling of
Dressed to Kill. And as usual with
his films in this category, the end result never seizes to
engage – or baffle you, although there
was no way he could take this any further after Raising Cain.
There is fun supporting work from Steven Bauer and particularly
Frances Sternhagen, who is the star of the best scene in the movie:
a 4-minute long take in which we follow Sternhagen's character
through the corridors of the police headquarters in typical De
Palma-ish fashion.
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