Film.com's FREE movie of the week is "Love the Hard Way." Oscar-winner Adrien Brody and Charlotte Ayanna star in this drama about a thief who falls for a curious, beautiful young woman. As their intimacy grows, a slick cop (Pam Greer) is closing in.
During a rooftop chase, police detective John "Scottie" Ferguson is overcome with a severe case of acrophobia--a deep fear of falling which results in a stultifying vertigo--that leads to the death of a fellow officer. After retiring from the police force, Scottie attempts to return to a normal life, but his life takes another unusual turn when an old school aquaintance asks Scottie to shadow his wife, the luminescently beautiful but utterly mysterious Madeleine. Scottie is wary but the minute he sees her he cannot resist the chase. As his fixation with Madeleine grows, however, so too does her obsession with death. When Scottie's vertigo prevents him from saving Madeleine's life, his one chance at perfect love comes crashing to a brutal end. Then one day, Scottie sees a woman walking down the street who looks just like Madeleine. She is Judy Barton, a salesgirl from Kansas with her own secrets--secrets that will once again turn Scottie's world into a dizzying battle between illusion and reality.
It's possible that autumn would still be my favorite season of the year even without Halloween. But my hot fave of all the big holidays sure does put this time of year over the top in the "Now I get to decorate the house