Finally rescued from oblivion after three shelf-bound years, Bill Forsyths ill-fated tale is a peculiar cross between Forrest Gump and Orlando. Robin Williams plays five generations of the same man through history, each with their own predicament to solve, but despite a scattering of nice moments (John Turturros cameo as a chicken-sacrificing Roman nutter, for example), the individual stories dont exactly score high on the excitement scale. Only the final segment, a moving little yarn which has Williams as an estranged dad, is involving enough to rescue proceedings from total whimsy. HH
(VP) Cold Heaven (Guild) 15
Theresa Russell plays Marie, a woman haunted by a vision of the Virgin Mary which is linked to the fact that her husband Daniel (Mark Harmon) miraculously escapes an obviously fatal boating accident. Unfortunately from here on things are almost impossible to follow. There are atmospheric shots of billowing thunder clouds, priests on cliff tops, bloody stigmata and moody eclipses, but it all amounts to nothing. Russell meanders through the plot looking seriously dazed whereas James Russo, as her lover, is merely confused. Which goes for the watcher as well.