9½ Weeks

27:30

ghgv

A sadomasochism tale in which the most pain is inflicted on the audience. This is one truly awful movie. A woman meets a mysterious man who pushes her sexual boundaries. This mystery man is the dominant type and he leads the relationship into some dark places. He's manipulative, at times abusive. She goes along for the ride. Happily at first, less happily later. She gets emotional, he does some more stupid and bizarre things, and then the movie just fizzles out. Tension and drama are in very short supply. What little dialogue there is in the movie is mostly laughable. Basically the movie just careens aimlessly from one "daring" sex scene to the next. And while the film has achieved a somewhat notorious reputation it's really not that daring at all. Any of the really dark stuff is only hinted at, not seen. What's on the screen is not explicit at all, by today's standards it's downright tame. Watching people play with their food is not particularly erotic. Mickey Rourke turns in an atrocious performance, smirking his way through the whole thing. Kim Basinger comes off slightly better but she's not nearly good enough to save this dreck. How they ever stretched this movie to a length of nearly two hours is beyond me. There's not even enough story here to sustain a 30-minute TV show, much less a full-length feature film. On and on it goes with nothing interesting ever happening. This is about as bad as it gets.

This film has been unfairly slated by people who were perhaps expecting something else. Re-watching it 30(!) years on, I notice above all the beauty of Kim Basinger, above all when she is apparently not trying to be beautiful. The range of expression she can bring to a scene just by looking is amazing; her hair often seems to have been brushed by a dog's claws, but there is something in her eyes which can take your breathe away. Mickey Rourke is above all effective as a guy who is willing to take risks and wants the woman to do the same, and I'm sure if I was a woman I would find him irresistible in this role ... A much-maligned film which deserves re-evaluation as a masterpiece of its kind. 1 point off because it seems a little too afraid of the censor at times ...

May contain some spoilers: What I find incredibly ironic about our society ( North American that is ) is how hypocritical we are when it comes to sex. I mean let's face it, many people over the age of 18 have had it at least once and many people are consumed by it. And as long as it is consentual, protected sex and intentions are never misleading, then what is wrong with sex, even if it is with someone that you are not in love with. Sex can be a powerful thing. Because if you think about all the feelings that you can experience during the act, they really range perhaps more than any single act that you can think of. Everything from pure lust to passionate love can be felt at one time or another during sex. And I find it funny that certain institutions or groups try to deny or at least restrict people from fulfilling one of the most basic needs they have as an animal. Nine 1/2 Weeks explores the power of sex. It examines it and doesn't shy away from what it wants to say. And for a film that is almost 14 years old, I have to applaud it for pushing the envelope of what is acceptable and what is loathed. Kim Basinger is a successful but lonely woman living in New York City. She meets a stranger who buys her an expensive item that she could never afford. But he buys it because he can. This starts the intrigue between the two. He is the tall dark mysterious man that doesn't really reveal much of himself. He is obviously incredibly wealthy, but it is not really revealed what it is that he does. And that feeling of subserviance is paralleled when the blindfold scene is presented to us later in the film. He controls his life by controlling others. He has his world under his control and that includes his sexuality towards her. Some say that this film doesn't really have a point or that it has no plot but to show a lot of soft core sex scenes. But look at it a little more carefully and you will see that it does have much to say. It just has to say it about sex, and many people can't handle that. Sex is topic that is taboo. It is something that shuold stay in Pandora's box buried in some ancient Egyptian catacomb, never to be unleashed on mankind. But Adrienne Lynne is a bit of a renegade, that, or he grew up in Europe where sex is like eating. They are both necessary to live. This film also has a perfect mood setting soundtrack. Songs like Slave to Love and Eurasian Eyes are just as important to the film as the lighting and the set design. Then there is Joe Cocker's famous " You Can Leave Your Hat On" melody that is the perfect song for Basinger's strip tease. These songs heighten the mood and make you feel a part of the world that you are voyeuristically watching. I'm not going to comment on the plot and the acting and the direction or tell you what this film is about. It is a film about a relationship that is doomed because of it's sexuality, that is all you need to know. Judge for yourself how good or how bad it is. I personally liked this film very much and I do recommend it. It has a lot to show and a lot to say about our psyche when it comes to "doing it". But don't take my word, make up your own mind.

"9 1/2 Weeks", while containing a few sequences of sex and nudity, is nowhere near as shocking as it might once have been considered. Kim Basinger plays Liz, an art gallery employee who meets Wall Street trader John, played by Mickey Rourke. While their romance is at first sweet and romantic, things begin to quickly change. John initiate a series of kinky sexual trysts involving food, a hooker, and an enticing striptease performed by Liz. But the time comes for Liz to question the nature of the relationship and ask herself, Is this really healthy? The movie is very, very slow, and in parts, very boring. If your watching this for the much hyped sex and nudity, don't bother, besides the occasional glimpse of Basinger's breasts and butt, there isn't much here to see. See it, just don't expect too much. "9 1/2 Weeks" is Unrated for strong sensuality and nudity, and for some adult language. NOTE: "9 1/2 Weeks" is available R-Rated or Unrated, which is one minute longer than the R version. But the Unrated version is no more graphic than a regular R-Rated movie.

This is high-gloss soft-*; a boring soap opera concentrating on one thing: sex. They actually made sex boring, sad to say, because I defy you to watch this casually and tell me what the storyline was. What this is, is an excuse for Kim Bassinger to show off her great body and for Mickey Rourke to smirk a lot. That's it. Rourke's smugness is so bad it's sickening and Bassinger, despite the great figure, looks cheap more than beautiful. Kudos to the photographer for some nice closeup shots and some wonderful color, but the story is so weak - no character development and no plot - it's unable to compensate. Let's face it: this movie was made for only reason - to titillate male viewers. On that level, it probably succeeded. If I recall, it's why I gave it a look being a fan of Bassinger's looks, but I actually expected a story, too. Those trying to pass this off as "arty" and something deeper than soft * are only fooling themselves.

Don't know why I didn't see this movie until recently, as I am a big Adrian Lyne fan. Maybe because Mickey Rourke has become so repulsive in recent years. However, I found this to be a thoroughly entertaining film, with fascinating performances and all the 80's accoutrements - music, fashion, set decoration, etc. I don't know how anyone could call it boring, but we all see different things when we watch a movie. I thought the much-vaunted "sex" scenes were pretty tame, actually, but really, really fun to watch! Kim Basinger never looked more beautiful, and Rourke looked great, too. I disagree that there was no character development. I think there were depths to both characters that didn't come out until the end of the movie, which I found very poignant. Yes, I think it was more about power than sex, and when the moment of truth came for the balance of power to shift - as the Rourke character had planned for it to do - he had scared off his true love. Sad, and a true sequel could have been fun. I give it 8/10 and plan to add it to my video collection ASAP.

Liz is a graceful beauty who deals in modern art. John is a guy with money, which he makes from some vague financial dealing. They are both lonely New Yorkers, and both ready for an affair. The central idea of the film (if 'idea' is the correct word) is that a woman is best wooed by engaging her senses. The movie purports to show how John 'educates' Liz into enjoying sex through sensuality. There is an edge of danger in everything that John does (stopping the ferris wheel at its highest point, feeding the blindfolded Liz a chilli pepper) and the nervous, insecure Liz has to learn to embrace the risks in order to augment the thrills. That's the theory. What we get is Basploitation, with Kim Basinger having her nipples and bikini line rubbed with ice cubes. Lacking the imagination to treat its subject seriously, the flim shows us scene after scene of Mickey Rourke shovelling food into Basinger's mouth. Rourke's character is meant to be mysterious and alluring, but he is mostly just plain irritating. Basinger's Liz is supposedly being titillated, but the titillation is aimed at the viewer, not the girl (molasses poured on a thigh LOOKS sexy, but actually FEELS yucky). John, the guru of sensuality, can think of nothing more original than continually blindfolding Liz. The film desperately wants to be a badass New York movie-with-attitude. We are shown traffic and garbage trucks, and smart alec art critics at dinner parties. Puddles compete with smoky, dark restaurants in Chinatown in a bid to convince us that this is all gritty and real. John takes Liz to an eathouse where hoodlums were once killed. Molly is a funny-and-sassy-but-vulnerable-jewish-New-Yorker who bashes the trunks of taxis which displease her. The flower delivery boy bops to the rhythm of his walkman because this is New York and he's a crazy dude. The more the film strives after image, the more it descends into cliche. This isn't New York, it's a stereotype of New York concocted by West Coast film-makers. Details which are intended to persuade us that this affair is a wild, romantic fling simply don't work, for the simple reason that they are grindingly mundane (throwing Liz's hat into the air, a 'quickie' in the clock tower). Rourke lacks the gravitas of a Don Juan. He is supposed to be a wonderful cook, but all we ever see him doing is cracking raw eggs. Aspects of the film which tax our credulity include the fight with the street thugs, which John and Liz win so easily, the copulation under a downspout of freezing New York rainwater and the leg-spreading game on the department store bed. Is it fair that pretty blonde actresses are expected to get their kit off in this way? Well, one imagines that there are plenty more pretty blonde actresses in work than plain ones, and the pretty ones don't seem to be complaining. Basinger may rail against it all now, but she took the chance of stardom when it came her way. In one scene, Liz crawls reluctantly across the floor, picking up money. Maybe that is a metaphor.

I just saw this film again after 18 years since it release and although I was in my twenties back then and now I appreciate this film so much for what it is. I guess one could say this is kind of a "Last Tango in Paris" of my generation; maybe not as deep and bleak but Lynn packaged this film like one long music video or long commercial; there is so much eye candy shots and that is just to get your attention so he can draw into this relationship that develops slow into a kind of dark and sad area. The first time John and Liz meet each other; John takes her back to a boat house and while there he kind of gives a her subtle glimpse of his sadistic nature; and all the other scenes that follow are all like a building blocks of John's dark character who according to Liz "She can't figure what he is about". There is a scene where John takes Liz to buy her the outfit that he likes and while paying the cashier Liz asks John, "don't want to know what I think about it?"and John smiles and says "No". At his apartment he has her crawl to pick up the money because it pleases him and doesn't care what Liz feels about it; and yet Liz continues to let him push her into doing it. Each time she gives into his demands he goes further to manipulate her into something that he likes and that last request in the hotel room with the Hooker was the breaking point for Liz where she runs into a * store and kisses a complete stranger to get a kind of even with John and yet deep in turmoil on the inside of what is happening to her. I think to me the last scene its still the very best part of this whole film; when Liz gets out of bed while John still sleeping and she is in tears. She begins to pack up her stuff and when John wakes up he tries to again in his subtle and manipulative way to stop her. He says he has never felt like the way he feels with her and some how he calls his feelings "Love". I think what I like the best is what Liz says: "we both knew it will be over if one of us said stop, but you wouldn't say it, and I waited too long"; she has had enough; as much as she is in love I guess there is a part of her that can still find reason and see the damage this relationship can do to her; I don't think the audience didn't expect this to happen or how it will end so fast in just 9 1/2 weeks, for most of us takes so much longer to realize how unhealthy a relationship is because we are too busy having fun and focusing on sex as love; this is where this film truly becomes of a substance and takes a huge turn by Liz ending it not John; this time she took control and left John hoping she will return as all others did when he counted to 50, this is how self absorbed his character was. When Liz leaves the apartment while walking and crying in the street there is one last shot of her turning back one more time maybe hoping John had followed her and then she turns because its over; this part still holds up today as it did 18 years ago when I first saw it and I still get the same feeling. This film really should have been longer and from what I read here it was originally about 3 hours and I like others would Mr. Lynn does someday release it as a director's cut. I never saw the sequel to this film "Another 9 1/2 weeks" which I hear was a disaster. Its sad really because this could have been like "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset" sequels; although Mickey Rourke may not as appealing or as popular he once was back in the 80's after his acting career took a dive to his boxing career but I still think he is a great actor and I personally would like to see another sequel with both Bassinger and Rourke to this dark romantic masterpiece...you never know it may still happen?