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Review

Wright's remarkable, revelatory performance anchors a sterling collection of finely drawn portrayals in Cassavetes' powerfully crafted exploration of an unwavering true love prevailing in the most desperate of circumstances. Penn and Wright are man and wife in an environment so steeped in violence that escalating menace goes unremarked. After the attack of his wife by a neighbor, Penn almost commits murder and is sentenced to a mental institution. Ten years later, he returns to her -- even though she has remarried a rough-hewn contractor (Travolta) and is living the good suburban life. Yet despite -- and maybe because of -- the hostile territory they once shared, a primal bond formed, which survives the passage of years and the establishment of new lives. Directing his father John Cassavetes' unproduced screenplay, Nick is his father's son in his unblinking, unflinching exposure of the human condition -- stark yet imbued with compassion.