I was in high school back in 1992, and I remember an incident when Basic Instinct came out. At the time, the movie caused a bit of an uproar from the LGBTQ+ community for its depiction of bisexuality. A classmate had been watching the local news around that time and saw an apparently live interview with a protester that ended with the protester telling the audience who the killer was. Said classmate related the whole story in class the next day, saying how it didn’t seem right to give away the ending like that.
I do not remember if I pointed out he had also given the ending away by relating that story. Regardless, I hadn’t seen the movie until this past week.
San Francisco homicide detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) has a new case on his hands. A retired rock star was murdered in his own bed during sex with an unknown woman. The rocker had been involved with mystery novelist Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), a relationship that was apparently more about the physical stuff than the emotional. Curran already has some problems at work, and has been seeing the police psychologist Dr. Beth Garner (Jeanne Tripplehorn) for both counseling and, well, other activities. But something about the murder case sounds a lot like a scenario in the bestselling Tramell’s work. Tramell is cool under pressure, provoking men and women with her body and her icy demeanor, but whether or not she actually did anything is based around at best circumstantial evidence. She never gives anything away under questioning, doesn’t even bother to call a lawyer, and can beat a lie detector.
There’s one small problem for Curran: he seems to be falling if not in love with Tramell, then at least in lust with her. Already under investigation from Internal Affairs, even a suspension from the force won’t keep him from looking into things or from thinking he has somehow sexually tamed Tramell. But did Tramell kill the rocker? And why does she know so many people who also make good suspects in the case?
I do remember a bit about when Basic Instinct came out. Writer Joe Eszterhas made a name for himself for these sorts of thrillers, to the point where he managed to get his name in the advertising. But does that mean the work is any good? This movie was famous, of course, for the interrogation scene where Sharon Stone shows off a bit more flesh than is generally seen in movies just by crossing and uncrossing her legs, and there are a lot of sex scenes strewn throughout the movie. Honestly, the erotic thriller is not generally my thing, and I checked this one out mostly to check another movie off my Fill-in Filmography poster.
But oddly enough, I kinda liked this one. Not for the writing, mind you. The writing is something of a mess. But director Paul Verhoeven has something of a knack for this sort of sleaze. Douglas is arrogant and rather stupid, Stone vapid but somehow believable as the woman everyone wants, and it certainly has the look of a good film. I am not all that interested in more movies of this type as it is still not my thing, but if something like this needs to be done and needs to be sleazy, well, Basic Instinct does more or less accomplish that goal.
Grade: C+
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