Body of Evidence (1993) Movie Review, Trailer, Film Still and Poster

Germany, USA 1992
Director: Uli Edel
Cast: Willem Dafoe, Madonna, Joe Mantegna, Anne Archer, Julianne Moore, Michael Forest
Rating: Unrated
Release Date: 15 January 1993 (USA)
Running Time: 1 hour 41 minutes

The Movie Review

Body of Evidence film still 1


BODY Of EVIDENCE
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Several movies were just unfortunate enough to be ignored on its days of release, but eventually gain the fortune and fame years and years later when people realize how good those movies actually are. But some movies are just of low-quality they're supposed to be ignored for the sake of our precious money and time, which in this case Body of Evidence, but then why do some people make an effort rummaging to find this film? (Ehem..including me). Several personal reasons I assume. Many, to see Madonna's full frontal nudity, but mine it's for Julianne Moore's sexy brave appearance in her early struggle to stardom. Well to say that I view Body of Evidence just to review it would be kinda rhetorical and fairly hypocritical.

Rumors abundant that this movie sucks badly that it should've stayed on the darkest side of a video store so as to prevent people from buying/renting it. But as Madonna's character Rebecca says to her lawyer "Could've at least given me the benefit of the doubt". And so I snatched the video and see what a movie that employ "eroticism + pint of thriller + courtroom drama + Madonna + Julianne Moore + Anne Archer" would be.

Sexed to death...Now I'm giving you a moment to let that sentence sink into your brain...

Madonna (I mean Rebecca) is the ultimate weapon of sexing someone to death! At least that's what the majority of people who live in Portland, Oregon would think after her much older lover dies in bed after making love with her. And not just dead, but Andrew Marsh (Michael Forrest) died in a kinky way, he's handcuffed to the bedstead and videotaped. A lawyer, Frank Dulaney (Willem Dafoe) is on hands to defend Rebecca against the clever and calm district attorney Robert Garrett (Joe Mantegna). It's People versus Madonna (mmm I mean Rebecca). It's not easy to believe Rebecca is the murderer since she seems so innocent and claims that either she or Andrew were willfully into extreme sex. On the other hand, Andrew Marsh is the rich man on the block, yes, he inherits Rebecca as much money as 8,000,000 fat dollars. Things getting complicated for Rebecca, when Andrew's assistant Joanne Braslow (Anne Archer) is so eager to put Rebecca behind bars because she personally hates Rebecca.

Frank is not going to sit back watching Rebecca gets verbally butchered by her opponents. He defends Rebecca in the courtroom and even serves her in the bedroom (mmm also in the parking lot), things that likely could jeopardize his marriage life with his wife Sharon (Julianne Moore). Interesting is that while Frank makes efforts to solve Rebecca's problem, he himself sinks into personal problems. Is Rebecca really the one who murders Andrew?

The strongest aspect of Body of Evidence, well of course the erotic scenes (read: nude) it contains. What makes it precious is those scenes are not performed by unknown extras, but by big names, Madonna, Julianne Moore and Anne Archer (of Basic Instinct (1992)). Each has their own share in gracing the screen with more than just acting and put much watchable-points into Body of Evidence. Of course the year 1992-1993 was the time of Madonna getting all sexed up and released her controversial book. And now talking about acting, there is nothing extraordinary or awful, although most of the time Madonna seems to gaze emptily when not saying things. The lines of dialogue are cheesy but they are strong and pretty memorable. Body of Evidence is a combination of eroticism, a bit of thriller and courtroom drama. The courtroom drama is actually pretty interesting to follow mainly thanks to the underlying premise of sexing someone to death and the decent performances of Willem Dafoe, Joe Mantegna, Lillian Lehman (as Judge Burnham), Frank Langella and of course Anne Archer. And the pace is good, the scenes flows naturally. Plus the camerawork are classy and artistic. But then again without the nude scenes and the intriguing premise, Body of Evidence will be a bland flick, not good, near awful, and highly likely boring. Of course those "instances" apply instantly to Moviegoers who don't like the nudity and sex scenes (which are not arousing, I might add).

So to conclude this review, Body of Evidence still should have stayed in the dark place of a video store but at least not in the darkest, this is still a watchable movie and many erotic thrillers are worse than Body of Evidence, besides even though it resides on the dark, fans of erotic thriller movies and fans of the actresses in Body of Evidence would still see the title glows in the dark.

> Care to get sexed to death? Then date these girls in: Species (1995) and Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973).

> Famous and suspenseful erotic thriller: Body Heat (1981), Fatal Attraction (1987) and a movie which surprisingly features again Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried, Chloe (2009).

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