STRIPTEASE
A film review by Michael Redman
Copyright 1996 Michael Redman
**(out of ****)
The advertising campaigns for this are at least as interesting as the movie itself. First it was a "nekkid Demi Moore shaking her hooters" film with the previews demonstrating the two compelling reasons to see it. Having captured the male audience, the commercials began a "mother fighting for her daughter" approach to appeal to women.
Now it's a "comedy where you least expect it", grasping for yet another audience. Among the split personalities, "Striptease" has also been touted as "not 'Showgirls'!" Talk about damning with faint praise.
Moore's latest sure-to-be-blockbuster is all this and _less_.
Erin Grant is a ex-FBI secretary (fired because she made a poor choice in husbands) turned stripper in order to win back custody of her daughter. The logic in that plan typifies the confusion of the entire film.
Among the colorful characters at the Eager Beaver, the club where she dances, is a fan who promises to help get her daughter back. He has the misfortune to end up floating in a nearby lake. Coincidentally this happened just after he tries to blackmail a US congressman sighted at the club.
More people associated with the representative end up dead and you begin to get the idea that everything may not be on the up and up. Golly! It turns out you were right and the Florida congressman is controlled by the evil sugar empire.
An almost unrecognizable Burt Reynolds turns in one of the oddest roles of his career as the drunken congressman David Dilbeck. Played for laughs, the character is occasionally hilarious, but the murders, his genuine sleaze and general worthlessness as a human being make it difficult to evoke much laughter.
Ving Rhames ("Pulp Fiction", "Mission: Impossible") is one of the few actors that come out of this looking good. As Shad, the strip club bouncer with a thing for roaches and yogurt, he shows a talent for dark comedy. Robert Patrick as Grant's ex livens up the screen: first as a frightening total jerk in his encounters with Moore and their daughter and then as a farcical total jerk as he mixes canine morphine and alcohol and flops from scene to scene.
Moore can act although certainly not well enough to deserve her highest paid actress in Hollywood status. Here she and everyone else struggle with a butchered script from a reportedly great book. The film moves from slapstick comedy to sordid and deadly political scandal to heartbreaking mother and daughter scenes without much finesse or success.
Despite its shortcomings, this film will surely make the big bucks as audiences flock to attend if for no other reasons than to discuss how many implants Demi has.
[Note: this appeared in "The Bloomington Voice", Bloomington, Indiana, 7/4/96. Michael Redman can be reached at mredman@bvoice.com]
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