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20 years after its original release I finally decided to watch Body of Evidence: an erotic thriller starring Madonna, Willem Dafoe and some hot candle wax. Released quickly after the successful Basic Instinct it even has a similar plot about a woman who’s suspected of killing a man during sex but instead of a detective getting involved with the suspect, it’s her lawyer which basically turns this movie into a court room drama with sex scenes as interludes.
Madonna plays Rebecca Carlson, a young women who’s into kinky sex and likes to dominate men, mostly older rich men with heart problems who include her in their will making her an ideal suspect for the D.A. who claims she uses sex as a deadly weapon. Her lawyer Frank Dulaney has the difficult task to convince the jury otherwise, though his approach goes quite smoothly as he’s able to tear apart most of the witnesses on the stand. What he isn’t able to do is to keep the attorney-client relationship professional. He has a happy marriage to Julianne Moore, who is wasted here, but is intrigued by the seemingly naughty type of sex his client engages in he soon finds himself under her, while she’s pouring hot candle wax over his chest.
Body of Evidence is a schizophrenic movie. Dry courtroom scenes in which Madonna has nothing to do than just sit there are intercut with steamy and at certain points basically unsimulated scenes where Dafoe and Madonna engage in sex of the kinkiest kind. First it’s just a little bondage, then come the candles, a bit of cunninglingus while laying in broken glass and even rape play. It’s like two different movies in one, courtroom drama and soft porn.
Like Basic Instinct the main question the movie poses is: is she guilty or not? The D.A. certainly thinks so, but when we meet her we have trouble believing that, supported by all kinds of evidence that acquits her only enforces that believe. But halfway through the movie you don’t actually care anymore if she did or didn’t do it. The eventual outcome of the trial and obligatory twist come to no surprise though I really expected Anne Archer’s character to be more involved in the whole scheme some way.
The only redeeming factor here is Madonna’s body, who has a really great pair of natural boobs. In fact, the movie was released quite shortly after her “shocking” book “Sex”; a period in which she associated herself with pornography. The first time we see Madonna on screen is during the opening scenes and she’s nude. It sets the tone for the rest of the movie.
If somebody took this movie into the cutting room you could get two seperate nice things out of it: an episode of Law & Order and 30 minutes of stuff to put on YouPorn.
Watching this film I understand many things: why Madonna is not a great singer with a great voice, but an excellent manager of herself.
She therefore she is a woman with little talent (the only talent she has … is that of having fucked all the men who have favored her career).
Some of her called her: the greatest whore in the world of entertainment! And maybe you are right! Over the course of her long and glorious career she has been able to sell her hypersexualized image to make money and become what she is today: a true sex icon.
So why are we surprised by this film? After all, it is an erotic film, where the most beautiful scenes are those where Madonna appears naked, with her beautiful tits and her bushy pussy; who first mounts old Andrew Marsh and then decides to have the excited Willem-Harry Osborn ride him. And then it is useless to be scandalized and mount useless criticisms on this film; whoever saw it did it just to see naked Madonna fucking!
Because what do you think De Laurentiis asked him when he called her about the film? “Madonna, you have to smile, make silly jokes, but mostly you have to strip, show your tits and ass and fuck with Willem Dafore! Because the public just wants that from you!” .
Ask yourself why this film had so little success in the cinema, but when it came out on videotape, was there a queue to rent it?
And 90% were men …
Because that’s what Madonna is: a luscious, buttery, sex doll created to please men …
Body of Evidence only feeds the voyeur in you !!!
The one dimensional portrayal of all the characters is something common to the genre and is to be taken with a pinch of salt.
It comes across as a very poor imitation of the sexy thriller genre. Although in the end it is quite funny and makes you spend a pleasant 1 hour and 38 minutes quietly.
Madonna as always is tasty and juicy but acting is not something that she excels in ; she just widens her eyes and stands still in the courtroom scenes and says stupid things… But deep down Dino de Laurentiis (a master in creating B-Movies) had chosen Madonna, not for this!! Her job here was to… “harden” the male viewers,… by stripping, displaying her amazingly sculpted, naked body and gorgeous boobs, while riding with “healthy, pleasurable enthusiasm,” Micheal Forrest premiere and then the lucky and unprofessional lawyer Willem Dafoe… And in this was what was really Oscar-winning for best performance as a whore appeared on the screen.
So hold on to the towel and hand spray, we’re going for a ride
The film is a discreet thriller, nothing exceptional means, but in a way I love it! I love the 90s and certain erotic films, trash movies that have depopulated in those years: from “Snapdragon” (with Pamela Anderson) to “Night Eyes” (with Tanya Roberts), “Secret Games II” (Rochelle Swansson). “Body Of Evidence” is one of them: sex, eroticism but also a story to tell … It has a remarkable cast, excellent photography, quite curious music for an erotic-triller film.
It has two flaws: the costumes (too sober for the erotic thriller genre) and the direction of Uli Edel: not suitable for the “Basic Instinct” style genre.
But let’s face it …, we hormone-ridden kids of that fantastic time, went to the cinema just to see Madonna’s naked body and beautiful boobs bouncing energetically, as she rides Willem Dafoe with conviction, panting and enjoying. Like not even in the best Tracy porn movies !!! But basically Madonna was chosen in this film, … just for that. She doesn’t know how to act, she’s not an actress, but she didn’t give a damn to the director and producer: they asked her to do what she knows best: strip naked and get mounted by the old and vicious Will !! And we kids who grew up in that fantastic period that were the 90s, we will always be grateful!
Oh my God, I just remember that when I bought the VHS, released in March 1993, I consumed the tape from the cassette, …. as well as an endless supply of paper tissues …