MATTY: I have a husband - he's out of town.
NICK: My favourite kind.
MATTY: He's away on business a great deal.
NICK: I'm liking him better and better.
The two of them end up going home together where they engage in a passionate affair. They become physically obsessed with each other, spending all their time locked together, in an uncontrollable frenzy of hot, quivering, passionate, throbbing...
CARO: Is anything going to happen in this film? All they've done so far is shag.
ME: Yes, yes. Be patient. This is called, "Establishing Motivation".
CARO: This is called "William Hurt Walking Around With His Arse Cheeks Out", more like.
Yes, there's a fair amount of how's-yer-father scenes in the first half of the film. But they are the sort of cinema-legovers you only get in films that feature lazy saxophones on the soundtrack. Waves pound on beaches, curtains waft lazily in the night air, women gasp and men clench bedsheets. And they never accidentally twang a contraceptive across the room, or are interrupted by the cat wanting to know what's going on.
Anyhow. When Matty's husband (played by Richard "We need you back in 'Nam, John" Crenna) reappears from business, talk turns to divorce. But he's a rich and powerful man with dangerous friends, who will stop at nothing to keep his wife. There's only one option left - MURDER....
"Body Heat" was made in 1981 and is one of those 80's glamour sex thrillers like "Jagged Edge" or "Fatal Attraction". It is rather well done even if it is a little slow to get going. It helps that William Hurt and Kathleen Turner are good actors. It also helps that there's an intriguing plot and a witty script ("You're not too bright - I like that in a man"). I'd say the whole James M. Cain atmosphere is laid on a bit thick, but you could do a lot worse.
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