Authors: Mark Bego
Faithful
is a highly entertaining little film, but it is clearly adopted from a four-character play, and 99 percent of the action is in dialogue. It is all too often entertaining for the wrong reasons. Since Cher is in almost every frame of this film, there is ample screen time to examine the contours of her face. Although she and Chazz Palminteri talk nonstop for the first hour of the film, one cannot keep one’s eyes off of Cher’s face. First of all, her lips are so oddly puffed up from collagen injections. Then there was her mouth, which had morphed—in the last decade and a half—from the jagged-toothed smile of her youth into a Chiclets-like row of perfectly spaced piano keys. It also appeared in this film that her face was so taut from plastic surgery that it didn’t move—or couldn’t move—when she speaks.
Faithful
was written as a play by Chazz Palminteri, and this film was co-executive produced by scandal-ridden New York City nightclub owner Peter Gatien (The Limelight) and coproduced by Robert De Niro. It was directed by Paul Mazursky, and costarred Cher with Palminteri, Mazursky, and Ryan O’Neal, the latter as the husband who wants her dead. Cher plays red-haired Maggie, who is confronted with an intruder to her house (Palminteri) who informs her that her husband wants her murdered and that he is the hired killer. In the ensuing dialogue, Palminteri confesses his self-doubts and talks to his therapist (Mazursky) about his many conflicts. Cher subsequently attempts to seduce him into letting her free. At several points, one is not certain who is setting up whom in the plot of the film. Was it really Ryan who hired the killer? Did Cher hire the killer to look like her husband was plotting to kill her? Was Cher going to commit suicide, but wanted to hire a killer and subsequently implicate her husband? Together they hatch a plan to get rid of Cher’s conniving husband (O’Neal) in this talkative black comedy of errors.
The advertisement in the Arts & Leisure section of the
New York Times
for
Faithful
depicted Cher as bound and gagged, outlined with four red
concentric circles forming a bullseye. The headline read “After 20 years of marriage, she thought she was the target of her husband’s affection. She was only part right.” Her husband wasn’t the only one who was gunning for Cher in this movie; there were the film critics to consider.
“Even loyal fans of Cher may be tested by [this] new film,” wrote Barbara Shulgasser in the
San Francisco Examiner
.
“I love Cher. What can I do? I am powerless to do anything but give her a lot of leeway. But leeway is insufficient in the case of
Faithful. Faithful
requires a governor’s pardon. . . . Cher is looking a little too collagened to seem real, but given the many convolutions of her career, she probably sees herself as way beyond real anymore. She still has that dry, deadpan and jaded affect that plays well on screen (198).
Mike Clark in
USA Today
claimed, “This is Cher’s first movie since
Mermaids
, and something beyond normal aging seems to have taken hold. Since our visual choices in the first hour are all but restricted to Cher, pro killer Palminteri and a very handsome house, facial immobility takes on added significance. . . . If I had
Diabolique
and
Faithful
in theaters simultaneously, I’d hire a hit man to take myself out” (199).
In the
San Francisco Chronicle
Peter Stack said, “Even Cher’s good looks can’t save
Faithful. . . . Faithful
seems as if it ought to be more fun than it really is” (200). And, Stacey Richter reported in the
Tucson Weekly
, “Palminteri and Cher have a nice chemistry between them and the movie has a decent number of satisfying moments. I just wish the actors didn’t keep saying the word ‘faithful’ over and over, with unsettling emphasis” (201).
Weeks later, Stephen Holden of the
New York Times
wrote, “This dark marital comedy, in which she stars with Ryan O’Neal and Chazz Palminteri, died at the box-office two weeks after it opened last April” (24). Indeed, that is exactly what happened. Even Cher knew that it was not a great piece of filmmaking. “It was no loss,” she said. “At least the reviews said it was nice to see me acting again” (24).
Not long after the brief run of
Faithful
came May 20, 1996, Cher’s fiftieth birthday. As it approached, did she dread it? “I guess so,” she admitted. “And then I thought, ‘Well, this isn’t so bad.’ I was really nervous about turning 40, but that was the best year of my life. I did three movies, an album, I met Robert, my kids were still at home, and it was just a blast” (61). After it was over, she had to admit, “I thought it was going to be awful. But it was a day just like any other day, and I was having a really good time” (24). However, when
Rolling Stone
magazine asked her to
name something good about becoming fifty, Cher flatly replied, “I can’t think of anything good about being 50” (61).
One of the aspects of this milestone birthday that annoyed her the most was that she wasn’t in a relationship when it took place. According to her that year, “Rob [Camilletti] was my best relationship ever, and when we broke up I was devastated. But we’re still best friends. Since Rob, I have had one relationship [Richie Sambora], and it was great, but it lasted for about a minute and a half” (24).
In September of 1996, Cher was one of the celebrities who was heard on the Kid Rhino record album
For Our Children Too
. This all-star children’s album of nursery rhymes and story songs also featured Celine Dion, Elton John, Faith Hill, Natalie Cole, Seal, and Carly Simon and James Taylor. Cher’s contribution to this album was the song, “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes,” from the 1950 Disney animated film
Cinderella
. The profits from the album went to the Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
Regardless of the lukewarm reception of her latest album, the crash of her latest film, and the sting of turning fifty, what Cher was most excited about was her film directing debut.
If These Walls Could Talk
was an all-star film for, by, and about women, and one of the most important moral issues of the twentieth century, abortion—and more specifically a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body.
When Demi Moore’s production company contacted Cher originally, it was to offer her an acting role. She told them she would only accept it if she could direct as well—and they agreed.
A trilogy film,
If These Walls Could Talk
centered around three different abortion issues in three different decades. Explained Cher,
It’s about this house in the period of the ’50s, the ’70s, and ’96. The women in it find themselves with unwanted pregnancies. It is Demi Moore’s project, and Demi plays the woman in the ’50s, and Sissy Spacek plays the woman in the ’70s, and Anne Heche plays the young girl in the ’90s. I play the doctor. I loved doing it. I love the subject matter, and I love directing, and I really love working on something that is meaningful (26).
Although she can be conservative with some of her politics, and liberal with others, it wasn’t a stretch to guess what side of the fence her sympathies were on when it came to abortion rights.
If you saw my film, you know how I feel. It’s nobody’s business what happens to any woman’s body but hers. It’s her responsibility—not that she’s going to be happy with whatever choice she makes—but she has to be the person to make it. That you could legislate someone’s body is almost an impossibility for me to comprehend. I guarantee if men could have babies, we wouldn’t have to worry about these laws (23).
During the elder George Bush years, specifically in 1989, Cher had already gone on record with regard to defending women’s rights and being militantly pro-choice. “This is my country, right or wrong this is not my government, right or wrong. I was thinking, ‘If they ever overturn Roe vs. Wade, am I going to become a militant? Am I going to be out there marching and going to jail? Absolutely, I’m not going to stand for that for a second!” she claimed (119).
According to Cher, one of the reasons that this film project was so important to her was the fact that she herself had an abortion in the 1970s before she had become pregnant with Elijah. She wanted to tell this story with honesty and realism. According to her
I made fifty decisions a day when we were doing
If These Walls Could Talk
. It was fun keeping all those plates in the air, but it was also relentless. . . . When we were done shooting for the day, I had to watch the dailies, to make sure I had everything I needed. Then I went home dead and exhausted (25).
The film’s cast included some of the biggest women’s names in 1990s Hollywood, including Sissy Spacek, Demi Moore, Anne Heche, C. C. H. Pounder, Shirley Knight, Jada Pinkett, Lindsay Crouse, Diana Scarwid, and Cher. Even the directors were women. While Nancy Savoca directed the first two segments of this film, the third segment was directed by Cher.
In the “1996” episode of
If These Walls Could Talk
, Cher, in her role as an abortion clinic doctor, gets to deliver the line, “I remember what it was like when it was illegal for women to make this decision. I don’t want to see those days come again” (202). It was a line Cher could have scripted herself. Amid the plot of the Cher-directed segment, there is an abortion clinic protest, and a large, angry crowd is gathered. In this particular segment, there is a photographer at the forefront of the crowd, clicking pictures. The photographer is played by none other than Cher’s ex-boyfriend Robert Camilletti.
Two other familiar faces from Cher’s film career are also seen in her section of
If These Walls Could Talk
. They are Craig T. Nelson and Diana Scarwid—both of whom appeared with Cher in
Silkwood
.
Directing this film segment was an important step that Cher had always wanted to take, ever since she first started working on major movies in the 1980s. How did she like being on the other side of the camera for a change? “Oh, I loved it!” she proclaimed.
And, I’d love to do it again at any time. I want to work on meaningful projects. It’s great to do things that are fun and entertaining, but it really also has to have an equal part of something that will make people feel something important and meaningful. Film is such a great way to sneak up on people and show them how other people feel, people that they might not even have the chance to meet or associate with or think they could be friends with. It’s a great way to change opinions (23).
As a director, Cher came through with flying colors, and
If These Walls Could Talk
became the most-watched original movie in HBO cable-TV history. The movie has a surprise ending, when a gunman comes into the clinic for vengeance. As the credits of this fascinating and somewhat disturbing film are rolling, Cher’s song “One by One” plays.
With regard to Cher’s entry into the world of directing, Chazz Palminteri claimed,
When you become a star, and you’re not hungry anymore, one of the things that keeps you a star is your work ethic. Cher’s very regimented. She gets up at a certain time, works out, has a chef that cooks certain things for her to stay in great shape, has a voice teacher come every few days for a singing lesson and a chiropractor who gives her adjustments. She’s also one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. Mark my words, she will become an A-list director one day, guaranteed (24).
When Cher had been asked in 1989 what kind of movie roles she longed to play, she confessed that she only wanted to find important leading roles. She pondered, “I would like to have played [General George] Patton in
Patton
, Rocky in
Rocky
and Vivian Leigh’s part in
Gone with the Wind
” (119). However, the ten years that followed
Moonstruck
had been frustrating ones for fans of Cher’s films. She had appeared in five films, and only two of them,
Mermaids
and
If These Walls Could Talk
, provided her with enough material to really work with on screen. She reported in 1996, “I’m getting scripts and stuff like that, but I don’t want to make the same mistake like when I did
Faithful
, and wasn’t sure that I should be doing it” (26).
In one of her strangest career moves, in 1996 Cher was one of the celebrities to lend her voice to a computer game called “9.” A product of Tribeca Interactive, this particular computer game follows several fictional characters through a disaster-filled resort house. Among the other celebrities heard on this interactive screen game are Christopher Reeve, James Belushi, and Steve Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith. Cher’s a rock star! She’s a movie star! She’s a computer game! Who else but Cher could make so many multimedia moves, and still keep it somehow cohesive?
There were lots of projects that she was involved in during the first seven years of the 1990s, but it hadn’t been her most creative era. So, trapped in the public’s perception of her, and the weight of her own fame, did Cher ever get tired of being “Cher” the star? According to her, “Yeah, I did that for four, five years. How long have I been gone. . . . I just puttered around. I don’t know. I was kinda happy not to be ‘Cher’ for a while” (61).
Assessing the decade of the 1990s from a 1996 standpoint, Cher admitted at the age of fifty, “I’ve had huge ups and downs in my life, and I’ve made some stupid, stupid mistakes and bad choices. But no matter what I’m going through at the moment, somehow I always think the future is going to be better, and somehow it always is” (24).
The year 1997 was one of those years in which Cher seemed to disappear from the public eye again. After a movie that the critics savaged, and an album that was a smash in Britain yet only moderately successful in America, and her cinematic directing debut, it was a year without high-profile Cher. However, amid the silence, there was talk about an important new movie role, and discussion about some new directions for her next album.