`Losing Chase' Is Offbeat Directing Bow For Bacon

Fresh out of Sarah Lawrence, Elizabeth Cole has what seems like a dream job: spending the summer in a beach cottage on Martha's Vineyard as live-in companion to a woman recuperating from a recent illness.

But the fly in the ointment for Elizabeth is that the illness the woman is recuperating from is mental - and the recovery process is no seaside picnic.

That's the intriguing premise of Showtime's "Losing Chase," (8 o'clock tonight), a refreshingly offbeat film that comes with an impressive pedigree: a script by the very hot Anne Meredith, whose "Bastard Out of Carolina" (made for Turner, taken over by Showtime) will be one of the year's most controversial TV films; a directorial debut by actor Kevin Bacon ("Apollo 13," "The River Wild"); and a powerful cast headed by another hot property, movie star Kyra Sedgwick ("Phenomenon"), and current Emmy nominees Helen Mirren ("Prime Suspect: Scent of Darkness") and Beau Bridges ("Kissinger and Nixon").

A few minutes into her new job, Elizabeth (Sedgwick) discovers her new employer, Richard Philips (Bridges), has somewhat glossed over his wife's condition. Chase (Helen Mirren) is verbally abusive, profane, thoughtless and bizarre.

For example: Chase orders Elizabeth to take her pants off because they look like they might fit her. Elizabeth is stunned, but does it. "You'll have to excuse me, Elizabeth," explains Chase later. "I've lost my sense of decorum."

Before long, Elizabeth realizes she's walked into a mess. Chase is angry at Richard for hiring a "companion" to watch over her while he's away working in Boston without even asking her opinion. Their oldest son, Richard Jr., or "Little Richard" (Michael Yarmush), openly despises his mother - and is as verbally abusive to her as Chase is to Elizabeth.

Under constant pressure and steady abuse from Chase, Elizabeth herself begins to come apart at the seams, spilling out hints of her own troubled past: a sister in a mental hospital and a mother who killed herself because she was "having a hard time living."

Strangely, when Elizabeth finally explodes at Chase, it opens the door to a peculiarly affectionate relationship.

Sedgwick and Mirren deliver strong, appealing performances in this distinctly off-the-wall drama, which Sedgwick put together as executive producer, making it possible for Bacon, her husband, to make a very auspicious directing debut.

"I'm an actor, so I kind of felt directing actors would be the thing I'd be best at as a director," Bacon says. "Having such an amazing cast in my first effort was a godsend."

As for directing his wife in a difficult role, Bacon said the only pressure was to show her at her best.

"She's the best actress I know," he says, "and I couldn't picture anybody else in the role."

Bacon also was impressed that Mirren, Oscar-nominated for "The Madness of King George" (1994), and a veteran stage star, agreed to act under his novice direction. He recalled meeting with Mirren and feeling "like I was auditioning myself because I had to convince her I knew what I was doing."

"Losing Chase" was filmed in Toronto, but Bacon was upset to discover his Canadian location scout hadn't been able to find a setting that resembled Martha's Vineyard.

"The idea of having nature sort of right at your doorstep - living close to the ocean - was essential to me," he says.

So, Bacon and Sedgwick's co-producer, Milton Justice, took a video camera to Martha's Vineyard and shot footage there to persuade Showtime to give them enough extra money for a camera unit to film there.