Review of Color of Night

Here we have another Razzie Award-winning Bruce Willis flick, only this time it’s a neo-noir mystery called Color of Night, and it’s not a very good one. In this whodunit story, Dr. Bill Capa (Bruce Willis) is a color-blind psychiatrist who investigates the murder of his friend Dr. Bob Moore (Scott Bakula). The suspects include Sondra, the kleptomaniac and nymphomaniac (Lesley Ann Warren); Clark, the obsessive compulsive (Brad Douriff); Richie, a transgender boy (Jane Marsh); Rose, a mysterious woman who seduces Capa (also March); Buck, a suicidal ex-cop (Lance Henriksen) and Casey, a sadomasochist painter (Kevin J. O’Connor). Like most murder mysteries, the culprit is the minor character who is rarely seen throughout the majority, so the murderer was Dale (Andrew Lowery), but, there were some questions that needed to be addressed. First, if he wanted to keep Jane/Richie out of therapy, then why didn’t he just kill Dr. Capa similar to how he murdered Dr. Moore? Second, how did Dale know that Capa lived in the previous psychiatrist’s house, as he clearly must have known before planting the rattlesnake inside his mailbox? Third, what inspired him to purchase a Firebird, the same model vehicle that Buck owned? Fourth, why didn’t Dale, Jane, or Mrs. Niedelmeyer do anything to stop the father from abusing Richie? I could go on with the farfetched plot holes in the mystery, but instead I’m going to end with this. For a movie that’s about finding out who the killer is, Color of Night sure likes to forget certain details and over-elaborate on others.

(1 ½ Bruce Willies out of 5)