Film

A Dangerous Woman

Name: A Dangerous Woman
Genre: Drama, Romance
Released: 1993
Cast: Debra Winger, Barbara Hershey, Gabriel Byrne, David Strathairn, Chloe Webb

Social drama

A 1993 character study of Martha, a socially isolated woman with intellectual disability who cannot lie—a virtue that isolates her further in a world built on small deceptions. Debra Winger gives a fearless, unglamorous performance. It's quiet, uncomfortable, sometimes frustrating, and deeply human. For viewers patient with slow-burn emotional complexity over plot momentum.

TMDb rating

2.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you are drawn to quiet, character-driven portraits where a fragile performance carries the whole film, and you don't mind a story that stays close to ordinary small-town rooms and simmering unease.

Skip it if you want a clear plot engine or brisk momentum; this one lingers on mood and body language, and its tension builds slowly enough that some viewers will find it frustrating rather than absorbing.

What it asks of you: Settle in for about an hour and three-quarters of patient, watchful scenes, where much of the meaning sits in glances and pauses rather than in dialogue or big set pieces.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

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But It's sentimental in ways that can feel manipulative if you're suspicious of emotion. Some find the pacing deliberately slow to the point of tedium.

The Elephant Man1980

David Lynch's masterpiece about a man whose appearance marks him as monstrous but whose interior life is profound. Both films are fascinated by how others project onto those who seem 'different,' and what truth-telling costs.

But Black-and-white, deliberately paced, and melancholy. It's a film about loneliness that can feel lonely to watch.

Wendy and Lucy2008

Kelly Reichardt's portrait of a woman unravelling through small economic humiliations. Michelle Williams' quiet performance captures Martha's quality: someone trying to do right in a system rigged against them, undone by forces beyond her control.

But Deliberately minimalist filmmaking. If you need plot momentum or resolution, this will frustrate you deeply.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from A Dangerous Woman

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer2017

Both films are interested in how outsiders or difficult people act as mirrors to the compromises everyone else has made. In both, the 'difficult' character is actually the most honest.

Yorgos Lanthimos's unsettling drama about a surgeon and the family that comes into his orbit—a film about moral culpability, social obligation, and the violence that erupts when people collide. Like Martha, it's about how honesty and isolation are often the same thing.

But Deliberately strange, cold, and formally unnatural. The performances are arch and the pacing is glacial. If you need warmth or conventional character psychology, this will feel alien.

The Saint of Fort Washington1993

Danny Glover and Matt Dillon as homeless men whose friendship is forged in vulnerability. It shares Martha's refusal to sentimentalize poverty or disability, presenting both with unvarnished specificity and unexpected humour.

But Grim subject matter and an uneven tone that shifts between comedy and devastation. Some viewers find this tonal instability feels like the film doesn't know what it is.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend2015

A musical dramedy about a woman whose mental health and social isolation drive the narrative. It's funny and irreverent where Martha is quiet, but shares the DNA: a female protagonist whose perspective we're inside, whose struggles aren't punchlines.

But Aggressively theatrical and pop-culture-saturated. If you want naturalism over artifice, this goes the opposite direction.

Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean1982

Robert Altman's chamber piece about small-town women revisiting a James Dean fan club meeting. Debra Winger appears here too, in a film equally interested in how women are trapped by others' perceptions and their own isolation.

But Deliberately theatrical, shot almost like a stage play. The structure is unconventional and the dialogue can feel mannered.

Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean poster

Wise Blood1979

John Huston's adaptation of Flannery O'Connor about a wounded man adrift in the South. Both films share a fascination with characters whose honesty or strangeness makes them dangerous to themselves and others; both are darkly comic about suffering.

But Grotesque and bleak. It's funny in a caustic, uncomfortable way that some find off-putting rather than cathartic.

Marty1955

Ernest Borgnine in a quiet story about a lonely, ordinary man seeking connection. Like Martha, it finds the interior richness in someone the world dismisses, and treats its protagonist with unsentimental tenderness.

But Released nearly 40 years before A Dangerous Woman, it can feel dated in its gender politics and social assumptions.

The Station Agent2003

Peter Dinklage as a withdrawn man who begins to form unlikely friendships. Both films trust their audiences to find humanity in quiet characters, and both resist easy emotional resolutions.

But Indie film pacing; almost nothing happens. If you need traditional narrative satisfaction, it won't provide it.

The Man Without a Face1993

Both are 90s character studies starring major actors in deliberately unglamorous roles, both directed by women (Dominique Keaton, here). Both privilege interiority over plot, and vulnerability over strength.

Mel Gibson directed and stars as a disfigured recluse befriended by a lonely boy. Released the same year as A Dangerous Woman, it's another 1993 American film fascinated by how physical or social difference isolates people, and how connection requires seeing past the surface.

But The film conflates disability with moral wounding in ways that feel dated now. The boy-and-older-man friendship has uncomfortable subtext that modern viewers will bristle at.

Naked1993

Both films trust their audiences to spend two hours with protagonists society would rather ignore, and both find tragedy and dark comedy in the gap between how people see themselves and how others see them.

Mike Leigh's brutal, brilliant comedy-drama about a misanthropic man adrift in London. Like Martha, it's about someone whose clarity and honesty alienate them; like her, the protagonist's 'condition' (intelligence without empathy, or integrity without social skill) makes them dangerous to everyone around them, including themselves.

But Viciously funny but also viciously bleak. David Thewlis's character is contemptible and fascinating in equal measure. Some find the film's misogyny or nihilism disqualifying; it will not comfort you.