BODY HEAT (1981)

SHORT REVIEW: A film, not for the faint of heart, about people who are faint of morals. Made in a bygone era when adultery was considered to be negative, Body Heat is a great example of the wages of sin. William Hurt plays dime-store lawyer Ned Racine who allows his lust and greed to destroy his life (although, that life is remarkable hollow to begin with.) Hurt does a wonderful job keeping our focus on Ned’s descent. He also remains likeable enough for us to want him to do the right thing. I wish the whole film were as well done. It draws us in with a strong opening. It holds us close as we experience the building relationship between the two lovers, Ned Racine and the married femme-fatale Matty Walker. The two bring the story to a satisfying head with the planned murder of Matty’s husband. But then everything goes to pot. The movie doesn’t know when its over. It keeps going on and on. Like an stalker who keeps calling to talk about what could have been. This film backtracks in the final act and tries to recast it’s narrative to be something its not. This haunting piece about the underbelly of sexuality should have been eighty minutes long, but it rambles on for almost one-hundred and fifteen. In the end, you’re left wondering what it was that drew you into the film. What was it that made you care? What went wrong? There are three distinct act breaks every twenty minutes for the first hour of this movie. Which break down as follows: Act One: (ending 20 minutes in) Alley cat Ned Racine meets Matty Walker. She lures him toward her by invoking his lust. They begin a secret courtship that ends when Ned breaks through a glass sliding-door to get to Matty. They have sex. Act Two: (ending 40 minutes in) Ned meets Matty and her thug husband Edmund in a restaurant. Edmund, not knowing Ned is bedding his wife, asks Ned to join the couple for dinner. This meeting sets the eventual murder up. Once Ned sees the kind of man Edmund is, Edmund must die. Act Three: (ending at the hour mark) The murder is complete. Edmund is out of the way. Ironically, to appear innocent, Ned and Matty must now not even communicate for a long time. The lovers are separated. This is the point where the film runs into trouble. Up to now, this plot is as tight as a drum. How the film should progress is: Act Four: (Ending 80 minutes in) Ned, paranoid and guilt-ridden tries to remain cool. Unfortunately, reappearing clues from the murder keep bringing his sheriff friend back to Ned for questioning. Ned lies to avoid his fate but the evidence keeps building. In the end, Ned discovers that he has been lured by his lust into a trap by Matty. She has set him up to kill her husband for her and then take the fall. She gets the inheritance, Ned gets thirty years to life. This film doesn’t go that smoothly. The final act of the film has a long drawn out piece with an unsatisfying and complicated plot twists which makes no logical sense. I won’t ruin it for you by exposing it, but it’s really not well done. You will feel like the film goes on too long – because it truly does. In script writing, like in real life, there is an art to knowing when to say good-bye. Overall, the writing is well done and the acting is very solid. The sexual imagery is disturbing in many cases and I didn’t think it to be sensual whatsoever (others may argue that.) If you can handle the sexual content, it is a good (not great) film that does show the downside of lust and greed in an effective manner. It’s worth the watch. Categories: film, movie, DVD, review, Body Heat, William Hurt, Kathleen Turner