Review of Body of Evidence (1993) by Bruce S — 04 Nov 2010

Willem Dafoe plays a lawyer who becomes involved with his client, Madonna, a woman accused of intentionally murdering her rich, elderly lover through strenuous, kinky sex; coincidentally, he left her $ 8 million in his will.

For an "erotic thriller," the film somehow managed to be entirely devoid of any erotic quality although there is no lack of sex: we've got hot wax, handcuffs, oral sex, parking garage car hood sex and various other forms of action.

My opinion: Sex thrillers work best when the sex is used as an additional spice to the story, not the focus of the story and Willem Dafoe may be many things and a very versatile actor, but sex god he isn't. Nevertheless, even with these flaws it is interesting to view. The courtroom scenes are moderately entertaining and Julianne Moore is good as the anger stricken wife of Dafoe while Anne Archer is very effective as the secretary with her own agenda and the sadomasochistic sex scenes....well, if you're into watching this kind of stuff, they may prove to be fairly entertaining as well. I did like the ending. "Karma, everyone gets what they deserve in the end.".