WILD THINGS *** of **** grade is B-
Wild Things is the sleazy cousin of Palmetto (of earlier this year). This one has more sex, nudity, laughs and twists. It is also a better film. It is fun to watch a film that keeps twisting and contorting as it explains the plot and buries you more.
Wild Things is about a girl (Denise Richards) who accuses a school counsler (Matt Dillon) of sexually abusing her. Later another girl (Neve Campbell) files similar charges. Up to this point the film is noir melodrama and looking quite good. Then something unexpected happens, Dillon hires Bill Murray as an ambulance chasing lawyer to handle his case.
Comedians don't get much credit for their work in films. I will tell you that Wild Things without Bill Murray wouldn't work. It would look like a Tarantino drone (like every crime-related film). He adds life to this film and an insanly funny 20 minutes. I want to be very clear about this, Bill Muray is funnier in this 20 minutes of this film than he was in The Man Who Knew Too Little.
Murray (very hilariously) gets the case thrown out of court and convinces Dillon to sue the first girls mother for ruining his career. Then we get a twist, Dillon, Campbell, and Denis Richards are all in it together. They are also involved in a minage a trois. We get a spicy sex scene, then another twist and another.......
With all the twists you don't really feel used by the plot, like you did with Palmetto. You are entralled and try to out think the plot, to a point. I felt there was one too many twists for complete satisfaction. The film you are left with is somewhat of a mess, but a fun one.
Much has been made about the sexual explicetness of the material. There are a few steamy sex scenes but the film seems to cheat on us. An old rule is that eroticism is what is left unseen. I have no problem with that, but what is Neve Campbell doing in a film that intends to show all. Denis Richards is naked, and so is Kevin Bacon (very briefly) but the sex scenes cut away whenevery Neve takes off her shirt. It may sound shallow or may look like I'm trying to be cute but that is not it. I like twisty film noirs like this. Bound of 1996 was a great one, and it had one sex scene to speak of. It didn't promise the explicet though, and Wild Things did, if it would have been more truthful to itself my grade would have been higher. Neve if the script calls for something explicet, don't nix the idea because you are too prude for it, pass the idea to another actress who will remain TRUE to the material as written and promised.
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