When an elderly millionaire is found dead with cocaine in his system, his will leaves $8 million to Rebecca Carlson, who was having an affair with him. District attorney Robert Garrett decides to prosecute Rebecca, arguing that she deliberately engaged in wild sex with the old man to overexcite him and lead to his premature death. Defense attorney Frank Dulaney defends Rebecca in court while getting sucked into a dangerous affair with her.
23 Nov Body of Evidence (1993)
Whipped
I often run across movies where the idea of the thing is much richer than the thing itself. In this case, the idea starts with that narrative battleground, the trial. Trial movies are cool, the best solution to the untrusted narrator problem. In this case, the viewer doesn’t know who to trust: sometimes you actually see conflicting versions from different viewpoints. “Rashomon” is perhaps the touchstone for this device.
Whoever thought this up added in another conflict: that between the vision of the writer (or director) and the actor’s persona. This is literally a case of whether a body can be used as a weapon. Acting as sex is a rather old idea.
The selection of actors shows that the producers wanted people who know how to work with these ideas, at least in the case of Dafoe, Moore and Archer.
But as you almost certainly know, Madonna’s persona proves vacant and the director’s vision has no centre. “Crash” is what you want to watch to see the idea of sexual deviation as performance. Or “Cook, Lover.”
Posted in 2004
Ted’s Evaluation — 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.
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