The 90s was the decade of erotic thrillers. Critics generally responded to the genre with hostility. The idea of treating sex in a grown-up intelligent provocative way did not appeal to them. It’s perhaps not surprising that Body of Evidence was savaged by critics. Roger Ebert hated this movie and I generally find that I love any movie that Ebert hated.
Much of the hostility was directed towards the film’s star, Madonna. It was assumed that this was essentially a vanity project for her.
This movie’s main problem is that it is too obviously a Basic Instinct rip-off and it came out much too soon after the release of Verhoeven’s classic. Another major problem is that Madonna is just not in the same acting league as Sharon Stone. In Basic Instinct Sharon Stone keeps us guessing all the way through. Madonna is just a little bit too obvious.
It starts in Portland, Oregon with a rich old guy having sex with Rebecca (Madonna). It’s great sex but it’s the last sex he’ll ever have. He promptly dies of a heart attack. Cocaine is found in his bloodstream.
The D.A. Robert Garrett (Joe Mantegna) decides to charge Rebecca with murder. Her body was the murder weapon. This is the main plotting problem. The idea that you could get a murder conviction against a woman for being too good in bed stretches credibility to breaking point. The cocaine evidence is problematic from the start. Even the D.A. doesn’t think he can prove Rebecca gave the guy the cocaine.
Even the fact that it was kinky sex, involving handcuffs, is unlikely to make a conviction a possibility. So the central plot device is the sort of thing that seems wildly far-fetched even in a movie.
Naturally Rebecca’s lawyer Frank Dulaney (Willem Dafoe) gets a bit too obsessed with her.
Frank is happily married but Rebecca introduces him to the world of kinky sex and he likes it.
There are a lot of courtroom scenes and courtroom scenes are always a problem. There’s no way of getting around the fact that such scenes are talk talk talk.
The court case could go either way as both sides spring surprises.
It’s a movie that looks good. Rebecca’s houseboat is wonderful - I want it. And it’s the sort of home that a woman like Rebecca would choose.
Madonna is not terrible by any means but she doesn’t have the acting chops to make Rebecca as mysterious and ambiguous as she needs to be. And of course her performance was always going to be unfavourably compared to Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct and that was always going to be a problem because Stone is simply a much better actress. Madonna cannot match the subtlety and complexity of Stone’s performance.
To be fair, Sharon Stone had a much better script to work with. Madonna does her best and she’s generally reasonably good.
Starring Madonna in an erotic thriller was by no means a bad idea but it would have worked a whole lot better if the movie hadn’t been so similar to Basic Instinct. It would have been fairer to Madonna to put her in an entirely different sort of erotic thriller.
Willem Dafoe is OK but he also faces the problem that his performance is inevitably going to be compared to Michael Douglas in Basic Instinct. I wouldn’t say that Douglas is the better actor but he was a better fit for his role and he was playing a much more complex and more interesting character.
Brad Mirman’s script is the movie’s chief weakness. The central idea is too silly and the motivations of the two main characters are too straightforward. The dialogue also lacks zing.
There’s plenty of fairly explicit sex and things do get quite steamy. The sex scenes are done quite well, Madonna is certainly uninhibited and they provide welcome relief from the talky courtroom scenes.
Body of Evidence was a box-office disappointment and has never really gained much respect.
It sounds like I hated Body of Evidence but I didn’t. It’s a perfectly serviceable 90s erotic thriller. It’s entertaining, it’s sexy, Madonna is fine and she has charisma. It’s not in the league as movies like Basic Instinct and The Last Seduction, or even Sliver and Jade, all of which have a lot more going on and are more multi-layered and ambiguous. As a second-tier erotic thriller Body of Evidence is recommended.
The Blu-Ray looks great. The pick of the extras is Kim Newman’s video essay on 90s erotic thrillers.
Much of the hostility was directed towards the film’s star, Madonna. It was assumed that this was essentially a vanity project for her.
This movie’s main problem is that it is too obviously a Basic Instinct rip-off and it came out much too soon after the release of Verhoeven’s classic. Another major problem is that Madonna is just not in the same acting league as Sharon Stone. In Basic Instinct Sharon Stone keeps us guessing all the way through. Madonna is just a little bit too obvious.
It starts in Portland, Oregon with a rich old guy having sex with Rebecca (Madonna). It’s great sex but it’s the last sex he’ll ever have. He promptly dies of a heart attack. Cocaine is found in his bloodstream.
The D.A. Robert Garrett (Joe Mantegna) decides to charge Rebecca with murder. Her body was the murder weapon. This is the main plotting problem. The idea that you could get a murder conviction against a woman for being too good in bed stretches credibility to breaking point. The cocaine evidence is problematic from the start. Even the D.A. doesn’t think he can prove Rebecca gave the guy the cocaine.
Even the fact that it was kinky sex, involving handcuffs, is unlikely to make a conviction a possibility. So the central plot device is the sort of thing that seems wildly far-fetched even in a movie.
Naturally Rebecca’s lawyer Frank Dulaney (Willem Dafoe) gets a bit too obsessed with her.
Frank is happily married but Rebecca introduces him to the world of kinky sex and he likes it.
There are a lot of courtroom scenes and courtroom scenes are always a problem. There’s no way of getting around the fact that such scenes are talk talk talk.
The court case could go either way as both sides spring surprises.
It’s a movie that looks good. Rebecca’s houseboat is wonderful - I want it. And it’s the sort of home that a woman like Rebecca would choose.
Madonna is not terrible by any means but she doesn’t have the acting chops to make Rebecca as mysterious and ambiguous as she needs to be. And of course her performance was always going to be unfavourably compared to Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct and that was always going to be a problem because Stone is simply a much better actress. Madonna cannot match the subtlety and complexity of Stone’s performance.
To be fair, Sharon Stone had a much better script to work with. Madonna does her best and she’s generally reasonably good.
Starring Madonna in an erotic thriller was by no means a bad idea but it would have worked a whole lot better if the movie hadn’t been so similar to Basic Instinct. It would have been fairer to Madonna to put her in an entirely different sort of erotic thriller.
Willem Dafoe is OK but he also faces the problem that his performance is inevitably going to be compared to Michael Douglas in Basic Instinct. I wouldn’t say that Douglas is the better actor but he was a better fit for his role and he was playing a much more complex and more interesting character.
Brad Mirman’s script is the movie’s chief weakness. The central idea is too silly and the motivations of the two main characters are too straightforward. The dialogue also lacks zing.
There’s plenty of fairly explicit sex and things do get quite steamy. The sex scenes are done quite well, Madonna is certainly uninhibited and they provide welcome relief from the talky courtroom scenes.
Body of Evidence was a box-office disappointment and has never really gained much respect.
It sounds like I hated Body of Evidence but I didn’t. It’s a perfectly serviceable 90s erotic thriller. It’s entertaining, it’s sexy, Madonna is fine and she has charisma. It’s not in the league as movies like Basic Instinct and The Last Seduction, or even Sliver and Jade, all of which have a lot more going on and are more multi-layered and ambiguous. As a second-tier erotic thriller Body of Evidence is recommended.
The Blu-Ray looks great. The pick of the extras is Kim Newman’s video essay on 90s erotic thrillers.
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