It Was Him or Us

Either Him or Us, a 1995 t.v. movie, is most effective in shedding light on the victim mentality, specifically, how easy it is for women to fall prey to seemingly well meaning men who are nothing more than wife beaters. Ann Jillian plays a woman, herself a victim of wife abuse, who battles the obsessive, violent boyfriend of her granddaughter, played by Monique Lanier. The film works in showing Lanier's belief that her boyfriend's passion for her is what is also responsible for his violent ways, and director Iscove succeeds in creating this conflict.

All performances are strong, especially Richard Grieco's, who is terrific in portraying the subtlety of his character's obsession.

Unfortunately, his character, and performance, go over the top in the last third of the film, as he gets even more deranged and the film lapses into too familiar territory. Thus, much interest and psychology are lost to a more derivative format typical of many movies about obsessive love.

Worth seeing, nonetheless, for the performances.