William Petersen is excellent as a thirty-something good ol' boy and absentee husband who is about to grow up a bit as he's forced to face some uncomfortable facts about himself. Sissy Spacek is his newly divorced wife who is about to remarry when he comes barreling back into her life to prevent it....These two would have never gotten married if they had had a good astrologist do their charts in detail; he's very much a Sagittarius, probably with afflicted aspects in his sixth house, whereas she's a dyed in the wool Cancer. They obviously have great physical chemistry but severely conflicting emotional and psychological temperaments and needs. It took her 12 years of anguish to divorce him even though they still love each other. He's trying very hard to win her back and nearly does but ultimately she's more adult then he is and her resistance though nearly crumbling, persists. The film stands as a perceptive and sympathetic study of basically incompatible characters with a knowing and abiding understanding and fondness for each other who will never be able to weld into a viable union.
Review of Hard Promises
