BODY OF EVIDENCE
A film review by Andrew Hall
Copyright 1993 Andrew Hall
I never would have thought it possible: Madonna has made Sharon Stone look like Meryl Streep.
Not to put down Stone by comparison, but Madonna is just awful Uli Edel's new film BODY OF EVIDENCE, which looks - even from the previews - like a cheap copy of BASIC INSTINCT. The new film also stars Willem Dafoe, Joe Mantegna, and Anne Archer.
An rich old man with heart trouble has been murdered, and his blonde bimbo girlfriend Rebecca (Madonna) is quickly arrested and tried for his murder. Frank (Dafoe) steps in as defense attorney; Bob (Mantegna) is the prosecutor.
The prosecution thinks Rebecca is the murderer because she was suddenly written into her lover's will just before he died and also because they had kinky sex - yes, handcuffs were involved, so naturally, she's guilty. To complicate things, Dafoe gets - well, more involved with his client than he should.
Was Rebecca a golddigger who killed her lover for his money? Or was it his secretary (Archer)? By the end of the movie, I hardly cared.
The beginning of the film is extremely rushed. We are introduced to Rebecca and Frank, but we don't learn much about them. Perhaps we're supposed to have seen the previews and have seen BASIC INSTINCT to guess what they're all about? Once we get to trial, things slow down, but it's too late. We never seem to find out what motivates these characters.
Now, BASIC INSTINCT wasn't the thriller of the decade, but the characters seemed somewhat convincing and at least interesting. Rebecca and Frank are just dull and lifeless. Archer and Mantegna are decent, but they don't have much to do.
Dafoe sleepwalks his way through this one. Perhaps he shouldn't be blamed since the story is so bad. Why in the hell would Frank get involved with Rebecca? Now, had we seen that he was unhappy in his marriage or something, we might understand, but he seems perfectly happy to me. Then he just suddenly goes after Rebecca. Why? She's not *that* great looking, Frank!
Ah, though, there is plenty of steamy sex in BODY OF EVIDENCE, just as there was in BASIC INSTINCT. If that's the reason you'd want to see this film, well, maybe you won't be as disappointed as I was.
Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend this film to anyone. Still, the ending was unpredictable and pleasing, especially if you're not crazy about Madonna. Oh, well, it could have been worse. At least she didn't sing.
- Andrew Hall
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