RAISING CAIN

"Raising Cain" is often cited as minor De Palma but surely even minor De Palma is often so much better than the best of many other minor directors and even minor De Palma can be a lot of fun. His critics call him a plagiarist and his many homages to Hitchcock, (some call them rip-offs but I don't), could, in other hands, become tiresome but Mr De Palma elevates them to the level of art. The plots may often be silly and he doesn't always bring out the best in his actors but the set pieces are glorious if sometimes a little too obvious.

Here "Psycho" gets the full-on treatment right down to the car in the swamp and the psychiatrist's explanation and, as in "Vertigo", he gives us the big reveal quite early on. But it's those set-pieces, in this case a slo-mo climax during a thunderstorm, that carry the picture and, of course, there's always John Lithgow pulling out all the stops and then some as a distinct first cousin of Norman Bates.