JOHN W. HESLEY AND JAN G. HESLEY: Rent Two Films and Let's Talk in the Morning. Using Popular Movies in Psychotherapy. John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1998, 305 pp., ISBN 0-471-17043-7, $34.90. John W Hesley, Ph.D., is a psychologist with a consulting and psychotherapy practice, and his wife Jan G. Hesley, M.S.S.W, is an advanced clinical practitioner who specializes in marriage and family therapy. In this book, they describe their technique of assigning movies to be viewed by their patients (clients) that are then discussed in the course of the therapy. Depending upon the reader's psychotherapy orientation, they will either be outraged or delighted by the authors' strategy. I actually presented this to two of my colleagues. The dynamically oriented therapist, though willing to admit that the idea was interesting, thought that talking about movies in the course of therapy was possibly a form of countertransference that allowed the therapist to avoid doing any real productive work and that any insights derived would be short-lived. The cognitive behaviorally oriented therapist thought that using films was an intriguing idea that could definitely help certain patients. My reaction was mixed. Though I regularly use commercial films as adjunctive aids to enhance my teaching of psychopathology, diagnosis, and psychotherapy to medical students, residents, training directors, and mental health professionals, the idea of assigning patients the viewing of films as part of their treatment seemed a bit unconventional. I guess that I was concerned, as was my dynamically oriented colleague, that the sessions would deteriorate into discussions about the films that, though pleasant, would serve little useful therapeutic purpose. This was my preconceived notion before I progressed beyond the first chapter or two. I am pleased to report that my perspective changed as I read the book. The authors have clearly done their homework in presenting the strategy to what they almost certainly realized would be a varied professional reception. In the first part of the book, they introduce their concept of Video Work and discuss Theory and Applications. They trace its roots to bibliotherapy, i.e., giving reading assignments to patients, and discuss why Video Work is superior to the value that patients would get on their own in terms of self-improvement of using films (or books) without therapy. They supply ample clinical vignettes, from their own clinical practices, of how certain films generated therapeutic change in their patients. They present a rationale for how, and why, Video Work works including: reframing problems (p. 18), providing role models (p. 20), offering hope and encouragement (p. 18), potentiating emotion (p. 22), improving communications (p. 23) and prioritizing values (p. …