9 ½ Weeks
Erotic softcore cinema pretty much got kickstarted with this 1986 release based upon a semi autobiographical novel by one Elizabeth McNeill, a woman who allegedly found herself in a serious sadomasochistic relationship all while she was working at a well known feminist magazine, an experience she reportedly never recovered from and may have very well contributed to her suicide many years later. The book which was said to be quite sexually disturbing led to the movie which is said to be much more toned down on many of its more twisted elements even as star Kim Basinger is said to own a whopping 14 hours worth of deleted scenes which have never been seen anywhere. Basinger herself is rather double sided in her opinion of the movie, calling it her favorite out of everything she’s ever done (it was her first major movie role) but also reportedly saying that she was emotionally manipulated by director Adrian Lyne during filming, deliberately putting her in the psychological states of mind that he desired sometimes even by isolating her from the cast and crew. As her co star, they brought in Mickey Rourke, who used this and other roles to further his superstar sex symbol status in Europe and abroad and here nails down his erotic screen image in the early scenes of this particular film. Rourke stands out from the other suit and tie goofballs constantly hitting on Basinger’s art gallery curator by making very light small talk but still taking on the attitude of pursuing a woman by making it appear that he’s not pursuing her or at the very least not seeming to care if she notices him or not, but of course she notices him and the almost ambivalent way he shows any interest in her. Eventually he gets her attention during a street fair when a vendor asks a ridiculous amount for a blanket which she turns down only for him to swoop in and buy it before giving it to her as a gift. Now he’s really got her attention and brings her back to “a friend’s place” where he explains that he’s a commodities broker (“I buy and sell money.”) and that the fast paced Wall Street life is just another way to make a living. He then points out the irony of how she barely knows him but still has come back with him to this place where they are now alone and anything could happen, an observation he makes which immediately makes her state that she wants to go home, something that he allows her to do. But the seeds of curiosity (and lust) are now firmly planted in her mind and he knows it, sending along flowers to her art gallery and soon engaging in a torrid and kinky sexual relationship with her. Rourke is perfect for practicing the art of sexual mindgames with a woman and here the games start out as being something merely cute before descending into something else. It starts off with Rourke blindfolding Basinger and lightly touching her in such a way that she soon wants more followed by the same basic concept only now he starts feeding her different kinds of food without her knowing it (a scene that later became a staple of spoofs and parodies) as the film starts becoming a series of setpieces (both sexual and otherwise) which appear to be Rourke purposely testing the limits of just how far he can get Basinger to go in order to show him just how “bad” she is or simply rather how debased she can become. It’s not all completely sexual though, such as when they are browsing a jewelry store when he suddenly tells her to shoplift a valuable necklace (after he had dropped $300 for the blanket earlier) and then has her dress up as a man (complete with blonde mustache) so that she can hang out with him in public at a men’s social club while he talks to her as if she were really a guy about how much he loves the woman that he’s seeing. The problem is that all of this is presented with the most languid pacing possible and at 2 hours long, one shudders to think at how Lyne’s original 4 hour director’s cut would play out. It’s also not really that erotic (or at least as erotic as its reputation would suggest) and would pale in comparison to the all out sexual hijinks that we would later see in Paul Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct as Basinger shows a nipple here and there but never completely lets go on camera since it would appear that her debasement is an emotional one rather than physical. The film was said to have been shot in 1984 but went through nearly two years of editing (and speculation) before finally being released but by the time while watching it we finally get to the “nasty stuff”, it pretty much pales compared to what the original female author had gone through, having become a sexual slave who was always handcuffed to the table and never allowed to leave even as the longer it went on the more and more her mind broke. Compared to the real life tenets of both that and of other relationships in that wacky lifestyle, Basinger’s onscreen “suffering” seems rather tame which is good for her since it kept her screen dignity intact enough for her to go on and still have a respectable career (including an Oscar win) showing that such bits as crawling along the floor while Rourke throws money at her or being blindfolded again while a hooker enters the room and starts feeling her up only for the blindfold to come off as she sees Rourke now screwing the hooker in front of her were not so humiliating in the sense that her own beauty and screen presence can still shine through, but maybe the story here really is Rourke himself playing a guy who can expertly charm his way into a woman’s heart while not being the most socially comfortable person, but then as time goes on starts asking and eventually demanding that the woman take part in the most unreasonable scenarios imaginable just to demonstrate the level of control that he holds over her, a behavior pattern that would almost appear to be compulsive even though he peppers it with a heavy dose of honey by telling her that he loves her a whole lot. As a result, Basinger becomes more and more withdrawn in other aspects of her life, missing a series of doctor appointments (as seen from her answering machine) and barely seeming to care when her co worker and best friend (Margaret Whitton) starts actively dating her ex husband. There’s also a weird subplot where her art gallery sends her out to the boonies to check in with the artist that they’re currently featuring only to encounter an old man who’s so far out of it that he could seem to care less about the exhibition of his work, even going so far as to reluctantly attend his own showing only for a number of people to go up to Basinger and rudely comment about how they love his paintings but don’t really seem to know what exactly is “wrong” with the poor old guy because he’s acting kind of distant and detached from the whole affair. Meanwhile, she carries on with Rourke, telling him that she’s sick of his games and almost pushing him to become violent before they end up in Times Square (before they cleaned it up) and she bears witness to a live sex show which compels her to start making out with total strangers in the crowd while he looks on disapprovingly. The question that remains is in just how much Rourke is an “evil” psychopath about this whole thing since (at least from the footage that made it into the movie) he never totally loses his cool even while he refuses to take “no” for an answer from Basinger. And perhaps that is the problem here is that the movie never takes it far enough because Rourke never takes it far enough either (god only imagines what atrocities from the book were considered too extreme for the screen), never crossing the line into being a full fledged misogynistic bad guy (which in many ways he obviously is) instead keeping him just a little bit on this side of being too cute as it’s a wonder that whenever Basinger stands up to him he doesn’t even lose his temper, ever. She’s definitely portrayed as being emotionally torn up and (mentally) worse off for having met him, but the funny thing is that compared to some of the real life monsters running around out there who enjoy abusing women, Rourke actually comes across at times as a more preferable choice, albeit one whose own bemusement over his peerless ability to get into a woman’s head belies the fact that he also likes to try turning her into his own personal whore, a relationship scenario for whom many their mileage may vary…
7/10