The Playmaker

On advice from barman Eddie (Getz), aspiring actress Jamie (Rubin) takes on a $5,000 one-to-one acting course with Talbert (Firth) in his isolated Los Angeles eyrie (like the pad in North by Northwest). First, she undergoes a bit of personality stripping, then he dresses her as a harridan/femme fatale and ropes her into a wheelchair. And that's only lesson two. The tables are later turned by some very implausible plot twists. A movie veering unsteadily from psycho-sexual power play to naturalistic horror thriller, with some finely achieved, but far from saving moments of tension and sexual frisson.