In Spellbinder, released in 1988, Tim Daly plays a lawyer named Jeff who rescues a young woman played by Kelly Preston from what seems to be an abusive boyfriend.  From there, he takes her back to his house, for her protection of course, and he soon falls in love with her over the course of the next few weeks.  Everything seems to be going perfectly until strange things start happening and Miranda (Preston) disappears.  Jeff starts to go crazy, unable to think of anything else but her and when he finally finds her again, she tells him of her witchcraft and how she is part of a coven that wants to sacrifice people.  What follows then is a cat and mouse game between Jeff, Miranda and the other witches with only one victor.

Except for the brief nudity from Kelly Preston, this film could be something you see on Lifetime, Hallmark or W.  For a supernatural thriller, it is pretty tame with its themes of love and betrayal.  There is a little bit of suspense, but it builds very slowly and is more of a drama than anything else.  In fact, aside from what seems like Jeff’s nightmares, and a little bit of a massage that Miranda gives Jeff, you would never even know that it has anything to do with the supernatural.  If the title was not what it was, it could have just been the movie of the week, and who is to say it did not get a little bit of an edit job to remove Preston’s naughty bits and aired on a Sunday night anyways?  What is most surprising is that this film even received a theatrical release.  It was not a bad movie, but it just does not seem like something that would meet the criteria of warranting anything other than home video.

This big budget soap-opera looks good and Janet Greek does a fair job with the mediocre material she was provided with.  Is it possible it would have turned out any better with a script that was a little daring or even a little bit darker than the fluff that Daly and Preston had to work from?  Perhaps.  One good thing that came of it all was the performances from the two leads.  Daly has always been good in whatever he has appeared in whether comedy or drama and this easy-going script was no challenge for him whatsoever.  Preston did a decent job as well, though she seemed fairly one-dimensional at times.  She played the woman in distress, the woman in love and then the woman in distress once again.  After all is said and done it all comes back to script, which was written by Tracy Tormé, and though Preston had fairly little to do, she did hold your attention being a very stunning woman which is exactly what the role called for.

Spellbinder is not a film you go and seek out unless you are a fan of either Daly or Preston.  If you happen to be flipping channels at ten in the morning on a Saturday with nothing else to do and you come across it, it will pass the time, but other than that, let it fade from your memory.

2.5 out of 5