Wild Orchid
People often forget that before he became the lovably eccentric cult actor with a Best Actor Oscar Nomination for his peerlessly brilliant performance in The Wrestler, Mickey Rourke in the 1980s was arguably the top male movie star sex symbol in the world (although not necessarily in The USA), so beloved was he by women everywhere for his laconic acting style and rough good looks that any movie theatres in Europe showing his films would be full of packed houses. Rourke was well aware of his image at that time and capitalized upon it by making it a point to star in films which almost always featured a hotter and more explicit sex scene than one would be used to seeing in an R rated production with a variety of female co stars up to and including Lisa Bonet (Angel Heart) and Kim Basinger (9 ½ Weeks), the latter of which virtually invented the phenomenon of the so called “softcore porno”, well made, well shot professional productions with real actors and production values where nonetheless the main attraction would lie in its sex scenes which were far more raw and intense than normal but because they declined to show actual penetration veered on just this side of being actual X rated PORN, a genre of filmmaking that wound up becoming quite popular on Cinemax (and ironically came to define that cable channel’s image). The filmmaker who is most often credited with shaping and defining the genre is one Zalman King, a former actor who turned to filmmaking after that career petered out and wound up striking gold with the softcore stuff, always knowing that no matter what the level of success his work would have domestically, the European market had a voracious appetite for this type of material which guaranteed that it would almost always turn a profit. After having had a heavy creative hand with 9 ½ Weeks, he and Rourke would team up for the first time as director and actor with this 1989 effort, a film that was met with universal derision by American film critics (some of whom like Roger Ebert seemed to harbor a collective jealousy over Rourke’s effortless ability to convincingly seduce beautiful women onscreen) but as usual performed well overseas especially with Rourke’s name being on it. It’s not really a GOOD film per se and it takes on the interesting conceit of almost being a tease, actually managing to keep Rourke himself out of the sexual action until just about the very end (unlike 9 ½ Weeks where he and Basinger would get it on in front of the cameras early and often) even as doing so was truly justified by both the plot and in the way that his character was obviously intended to be developed. Rourke plays Wheeler, an enigmatic self made millionaire whom we are told grew up an orphan with no education and who still yet managed to make something of himself. Unfortunately, becoming rich had brought on a parade of women who were only interested in his money (whores) which had disillusioned him so much so that he decided that he’d rather have more fun just playing outright mind games with them instead before he’d ever even bother to touch them, knowing that doing so would weed them out one by one and just maybe that way he could find a real woman to call his own with the mental connection having come between them first. The film starts by introducing us to Emily (Carre Otis, Rourke’s real life girlfriend and future ex wife at that time), a recent law school graduate and apparent prodigy who can speak several languages who gets hired right away by the big talking female boss of an international law firm (Jacqueline Bisset, a major female sex symbol herself back in the 1970s in a role that was nearly played by Anne Archer if not for more prudent instincts taking over). Bisset sees that Otis is young and gorgeous and looking forward to exploring the world which she’s never experienced, but can also tell that she’s naïve and innocent which might be a liability to the business as the two of them jet down to Rio De Janeiro to close a business deal on a resort property which Bisset has personally brokered herself. Upon finding that the business owner has suddenly taken off to attend a wedding, Bisset decides to head out that way to find the guy and as a favor asks Otis to fill in for her on a “date” with an old friend who turns out to be Rourke’s Wheeler, a guy who has been known to make investments on various deals of Bisset’s when needed but really just leaves things at that as it’s no surprise that Bisset is completely nuts about him even though he’s never touched her. When Rourke realizes that he’s facing a complete babe in the woods when it comes to Otis, he finds a way to gently ease inside of her head including disclosing that he had actually telephoned her mother just to find out what her favorite food was so he could order it for dinner. Rourke never overplays his hand which is what makes him so fascinating but Otis appears to be having somewhat of a awakening of her own, having watched a dark skinned man and woman vigorously and spontaneously fucking inside a burnt out building and later on is brought to places by Rourke where openly explicit sexual acts seem to be taking place everywhere. Apparently this is common in a place like Rio and it must be said that the location photography is stunning in showing us both the culture and flavor of the region. Most important is when Rourke introduces Otis to an estranged middle aged couple whom he’s friends with and actually acts as a sort of marriage / sex counselor for them (as Otis watches) and when he’s finished working his magic and the married couple are having energetic sex in front of the shocked young woman, Rourke gently tells her that this is the true difference between two people who are having sex and two people making love. Rourke manages to pull off playing this mysterious rogue gentleman who uses multiple defense mechanisms with his usual aplomb, but it’s the supporting performances that suffer here: Otis (while very beautiful) plays her role in a constant monotone plus the fact that since it’s never made clear if she’s a literal virgin or not (which is a key to the entire story), then we never become quite sure if she’s particularly what Rourke is looking for. As for Bisset, she never gets in on the onscreen sexual hijinks (something that she was very up for during her prime in the 1970s) even as it’s teased at one point, but instead her character becomes more of the tired cliché older woman character played by a renowned older actress who once in a while sprinkles some F words into her dialogue just to make sure that we are still awake and paying attention, but even as it’s made clear that she too is madly and obsessively in love with Rourke (and that she purposely pushed Otis onto him just to see if the younger woman can elicit a response from him), she really just comes across as being someone who is past their prime collecting one more paycheck in order to prove that she’s still relevant. The real interest comes from what can best be called the reverse sexual dynamics of the story as Rourke proves here that being desirable because of having money and success all while being willing to spend that money on various gifts for various women as a way of making them think that they’ve hit upon the gravy train before quickly losing interest in them all while knowing that it’s going to drive them crazy over him seemingly not even wanting to screw them (and thus reinforces the notion that men with money and power should take some real pride in who they want to be with and not literally buy the first attractive woman that they see to have for themselves just because they think they can and then get burned later on for it) for even a quick bit of pleasure is almost refreshing for the genre. Yes, it’s even implied that Rourke cannot get it up which is why he is like this, but thankfully that turns out to not be true by the end, as instead he’s more of a guy who has the strength to say no to a woman until he knows that he has the right one with him and then screws her like a rhinoceros in such a way that he puts most male porn stars to shame. Yes, ending the movie with a nearly no holds barred fuck (love?) scene almost comes off as being tasteless and crass (and said scene had to be edited to avoid the dreaded X rating), but at least the point was made with what remains one of the more overambitious softcore porn movies ever made with the actor who popularized them and the director who spent the 1990s keeping Skinemax happy with his Red Shoe Diaries and other stuff…
5/10