MOVIE REVIEW : Hard Choices to Be Made in ‘Hard Promises’

There is something nervy and perhaps more than a trifle foolhardy about a film with a charismatic fathead for a protagonist, but not only does “Hard Promises� (citywide) take the risk, it makes it worthwhile for those who can stay the limit.

For, make no mistake about it, Joey Coalter (“To Live and Die in L.A.’s� William Petersen) is not one of nature’s noblemen. Smug, self-centered and cocksure, he probably comes across as even more of an off-putting jerk than screenwriter Jule Selbo and director Martin Davidson realize. Yet, if he were a nicer guy, “Hard Promises� wouldn’t be able to make the dramatic points it is after.

Joey is first glimpsed somewhere out on the range, telling tall tales about Tahitian beauties to a bunch of somewhat dubious cowhands. The mail arrives and Joey gets what is clearly an invitation. “Someone getting married?� a friend asks. “Yeah,� Joey replies stonily. “My wife.�

Driving day and night (and through the credits), Joey arrives at his small Texas hometown the day before Chris (Sissy Spacek), the mother of his young daughter and the woman he considers his wife, is about to marry Walt Humphrey (Brian Kerwin), a classic coat-and-tie guy Joey remembers contemptuously as “the captain of the stamp-collecting team.�

Though Joey and Chris had been married for something like a dozen years, Joey, afflicted with terminal wanderlust, has been gone for most of that time. During one of his more prolonged absences, a fed-up Chris divorced him and made plans to remarry. But, now that Joey is back in town, he is nothing if not confident that he can persuade Chris to cancel the wedding and remarry him instead.

The first side of Joey we see in the PG-rated “Hard Promises� is the charming rogue, but the more time we spend with him, the more he turns into a flesh and blood version of “Beauty and the Beast’s� Gaston, the less we tend to like him, and the more we tend to agree with Chris’ best friend, Dawn (Mare Winningham), that he is to be avoided at all costs.

Chris feels exactly the same way, at least most of the time. But, thanks to a warm and believable performance by the invariably underrated Spacek, we also see that as much as she is interested in the stability that Walt represents, on an emotional level Chris still has difficulty resisting the wild and crazy side of Joey.

As the characters in the film, not to mention its audience, agonize over the choice Chris will make, “Hard Promises� manages to raise some interesting questions both about what it means to be in love and what adulthood is all about. By the time its all over, Chris, Joey and Walt have all learned something. Not too much, thankfully, and not too easily, but enough to make the bumps of “Hard Promises� worth bearing.

‘Hard Promises’

Sissy Spacek: Chris

William Petersen: Joey

Brian Kerwin: Walt

Mare Winningham: Dawn

Jeff Perry: Pinky

Olivia Burnette: Beth

A Stone Group Pictures presentation of a High Horse Films production, released by Columbia Pictures. Director Martin Davidson. Producers Cindy Chvatal, William Petersen. Executive producers Rick Bieber, Peter McAlevey. Screenplay Jule Selbo. Cinematographer Andrzej Bartkowiak. Editor Bonnie Koehler. Costumes Susan Gammie. Music Kenny Vance. Production design Dan Leigh. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.

MPAA-rated PG.