I've seen this movie before. Except the first time I saw the movie it was called Double Indemnity. And it was a lot better. Writer/director Lawrence Kasdan makes no attempt to hide the fact that he's basically just doing Double Indemnity all over again. He took that movie, sexed it up a bit, added a few twists and ended up with a movie not nearly as good as the one that inspired him. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery but Body Heat flatters to deceive. It's an imitation alright but a rather pale one.
If you've seen Double Indemnity you already know the plot of Body Heat. There's a woman who wants to kill her husband for his money and there's the poor sap who falls under the woman's seductive spell and finds himself up to his neck in a murder plot. Whereas Double Indemnity made it very clear that it was the woman who hatched the murderous plot Body Heat is a little more vague. Maybe this time it's the woman's new lover who first gets the idea for murder and she's just willing to go along for the ride. This opens up some different possibilities, allowing the movie to retain an air of mystery and to set up some twists and turns at the end. But by the time all is finally revealed it's too late to save this movie. With it having been such a plodding, monotonous journey, and the main characters having so little personality, by the end you probably won't care how it ends. You'll just be glad that it's finally ending.
Kathleen Turner plays our mysterious seductress, Matty Walker, and she certainly brings plenty of heat to the role, steaming up the screen in a way her Double Indemnity counterpart Barbara Stanwyck never would have been allowed to back in 1944. But steaminess aside Turner otherwise pales in comparison to Stanwyck. For whatever mystery there may be around her Matty Walker the character has very little life to her. Turner is dry and bland, delivering her lines in snooze-inducing monotone. Her co-star William Hurt comes across no better with his portrayal of sleazy lawyer Ned Racine, Matty's new lover and would-be murder accomplice. Hurt has about as much charisma as a doorknob and the movie never even attempts to justify why Ned is willing to murder for this woman he just met. She can't be THAT good in bed. The plot meanders about with the sense that the movie's just killing time until it finally gets around to killing the husband. Another problem is the movie's score which is loud, obtrusive and obnoxious. Never a quiet moment to let the movie breathe. Then again if your ears weren't constantly being assaulted by the music you might notice that nothing is going on and the director wouldn't want that. In the end there are some rather contrived twists as the movie tries to piece its plot together. There's also Ted Danson, playing a prosecutor, doing a little tap-dance before he tells his friend he suspects him of murder. At that point it becomes rather impossible to take the movie seriously. Kasdan took a classic movie and tried to heat it up. But he overcooked it.
If you've seen Double Indemnity you already know the plot of Body Heat. There's a woman who wants to kill her husband for his money and there's the poor sap who falls under the woman's seductive spell and finds himself up to his neck in a murder plot. Whereas Double Indemnity made it very clear that it was the woman who hatched the murderous plot Body Heat is a little more vague. Maybe this time it's the woman's new lover who first gets the idea for murder and she's just willing to go along for the ride. This opens up some different possibilities, allowing the movie to retain an air of mystery and to set up some twists and turns at the end. But by the time all is finally revealed it's too late to save this movie. With it having been such a plodding, monotonous journey, and the main characters having so little personality, by the end you probably won't care how it ends. You'll just be glad that it's finally ending.
Kathleen Turner plays our mysterious seductress, Matty Walker, and she certainly brings plenty of heat to the role, steaming up the screen in a way her Double Indemnity counterpart Barbara Stanwyck never would have been allowed to back in 1944. But steaminess aside Turner otherwise pales in comparison to Stanwyck. For whatever mystery there may be around her Matty Walker the character has very little life to her. Turner is dry and bland, delivering her lines in snooze-inducing monotone. Her co-star William Hurt comes across no better with his portrayal of sleazy lawyer Ned Racine, Matty's new lover and would-be murder accomplice. Hurt has about as much charisma as a doorknob and the movie never even attempts to justify why Ned is willing to murder for this woman he just met. She can't be THAT good in bed. The plot meanders about with the sense that the movie's just killing time until it finally gets around to killing the husband. Another problem is the movie's score which is loud, obtrusive and obnoxious. Never a quiet moment to let the movie breathe. Then again if your ears weren't constantly being assaulted by the music you might notice that nothing is going on and the director wouldn't want that. In the end there are some rather contrived twists as the movie tries to piece its plot together. There's also Ted Danson, playing a prosecutor, doing a little tap-dance before he tells his friend he suspects him of murder. At that point it becomes rather impossible to take the movie seriously. Kasdan took a classic movie and tried to heat it up. But he overcooked it.