Raising Cain

Carter Nix is a child psychologist. Fascinated by the education of children, he chooses to stay home with his little daughter. But slowly his interest turns into an obsession; it begins to look like a strange experiment In upbringing. His wife Jenny gets more and more suspicious about his role as ''Mr. Mama''. Their relationship deteriorates and the situation gets even worse when Jenny's ex-lover shows up. Something is about to happen in the idyllic little town; something that will forever change the people there.
Comment:
Schizophrenia, split personality, multiple personalities; just about any term fits Doctor Carter Nix, the main character in Brian De Palma's Raising Cain. This is mental illness on parade, presented with the crudeness typical of De Palma's movies, which means more efficiency than subtleness.
If you like De Palma you will like Raising Cain. No doubt, De Palma's career has gone up and down like a jojo. The last wash-out was Bonfire of the Vanities. But as soon as he gets his hands on a nice psychopath De Palma is in his element and at his best.
Brian De Palma has said that he likes to surprise his audience; to make us feel uncomfortable by first lulling us into security and then brutally shattering it. In Raising Cain we meet the child psychologist Carter
Nix, portrayed by John Lithgow who we have also seen in Brian De Palma's Obsession and Blow Out. Carter Nix takes a few years off in order to see his daughter grow up. His wife Jenny, portrayed by Lolita Davidovitch, thinks that this is great - until he begins to lose it. One minute he is repressed and subservient, the next he is cold and capable of extreme acts of violence. These different aspects exist side by side within the same person but are hardly aware of each other.
Brian De Palma has shown that he is an excellent depicter of the psychology and mechanisms of violence in films like Carrie, Scarface, Body Double and perhaps even The Untouchables. Raising Cain is yet another film in the same spirit, but it is also a film that can be associated with a number of films dealing with schizophrenia. At the basis of De Palma's work is an admiration for Hitchcock. But in this film he also reveals influences from the Italian master of horror, Daria Argento, another Hitchcock fan. Those who have seen Argento's
T enebrae will sooner or later ''feel at home'' in this film. Perhaps De Palma is a sort of missing link between the pure American psycho and horror movie and the Italian school. Raising Cain proves that to be a well-founded suspicion.
Stefan Malmqvist

Medverkande
John Lithgow, Lolita Davidovich: Producent
Gale Anne Hurd: Manus
Brian De Palma: Foto
Srephen H. Burum: Talat språk
English