Anthony Perkins on exile to European cinema, Kathleen Turner showing her eccentricity before the anodynity of Romancing... and Ken Russell revelling in this riot of crazy imagery and dialogue which at times sounds like it was written by a cross between Hunter Thompson and SJ Perelman.
Thoroughly, truly, oddly worth a watch!
Worth a watch? I am not so sure.
This 'movie' (can one call it that?) was really just a collection of loosely collected scenes that entwined the characters. Or better yet caricatures - the high school football hero who refuses to grow up, the professional by day/prostitute by night, the deviant preacher, and the frigid housewife. The dialogue, (very good during Kathleen Turner's scenes with tricks) leaves much to be desired. And the story was as convoluted as possible. Here are some examples...
We have the 'hero', who after his dalliance with Turner wants to know if she felt that it was more than just a sexual release and when she agrees (of sorts), he tells her he will never see her again! If that was how he felt, then why did he bring it up?
The frigid wife pulls away from the hero's advances constantly, even asking him to move out, then pops by the workplace to tell him she wants him to come back and how lonely it feels to be in the bed alone. Then she rips into a tirade about responsibility and such because he found someone new and she can smell her on him. Was her nose not working when she started her speech about coming home and being alone in their bed, etc?
Then to cap that aspect off... our hero goes home for a dinner with the frigid wife when he could be heating up the sheets with the prostitute! All in order to set up the finale. I must say that was a strange choice... here is a guy getting shut down nightly by the wife and he doesn't pass on her to get some hot loving from the new girlfriend?
All in all, it was a train wreck of a movie with queer little scenes placed throughout (the music video, the proposed threesome in the limo, the HP gag at the barbeque, etc) that never furthered the storyline.
Actually, if it had been put to a single 90 minute song, it could have passed for a MTV music video from the mid-80's.
The "smell her on you" line was just meant as a putdown. Like when Potts says "I bet she has boobs out to here...", we know that's not true either, as Kathleen was not very blessed.
This film had a great effect on me years after I first saw it. As a horny 13-year-old, I was into the sex and violence of course. Then as a married guy with a kid years later whose wife wasn't as bad as Bobby's, but a mess anyway, I was glued to this after having not seen it since I'd been married. The things couples fight about and how stale it all gets. Bullseye!
My probs with the story more lied in it never fully explaining why Turner does what she does. Plus the ending, where there's a female scream as Perkins is stabbed while wearing drag. A phoney cheese tactic to give the audience a shock. But as bad or good as people think it is, it's never boring.
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I watched it tonight because I was in the mood for an "eighties movie". Well, it was eighties all right, but not quite what I expected. I expected more of a thriller, but this was some strange mix of erotic art movie. If I was more familiar with Ken Russell's work, I might have been better prepared. Still, quite enjoyable.
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