Nine & A Half Weeks
NINE & A HALF WEEKS (18)
D: Adrian Lyne
MGM/United Artists/PSO (Anthony Rufus Isaacs & Zalman
King)
US 1986
113 mins
Romance
W: Patricia Knop, Zalman King & Sarah Kernochan
[based on the novel by Elizabeth McNeill]
DP: Peter Biziou
Ed: Caroline Biggerstaff, Ed Hansen, Tom Rolf & Mark
Winitsky
Mus: Jack Nitzsche
Mickey Rourke (John Gray), Kim Basinger (Elizabeth
McGraw), Margaret Whitton (Molly), David Margulies (Harvey), Christine Baranski (Thea)
Steamy soft-core romance nonsense in which a Wall Street
banker and an art gallery owner embark on a steamy affair lasting about 66 days, where they have lots of sex and waste all the food in their refrigerator not making sandwiches.
In the hands of another director, this would be just
another skin flick, but Adrian Lyne takes an artful approach to the subject matter, which in turn makes it even more painful a watch, possibly because Mickey Rourke & Kim Basinger have no
on-screen chemistry whatsoever.
This may have passed for romance in the kitsch-80's, but
modern audiences will find it simply laughable, especially the intended erotic scenes where Mickey Rourke empties the contents of his fridge over Kim Basinger's expectant face. It would've
been far more entertaining to watch them tidy up all the mess.
4/10
