Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (April 10, 2022)
You know all those cheesy sex thrillers they used to show weekends on cable? Straight-to-video classics with titles like Naked Lies, Stormy Nights, or Victim of Desire?
If you've watched any of those movies, you've essentially seen Wild Things. Oh, it features a better than average cast, much stronger production values, and more wit and cleverness, but Wild Things clearly shares more in common with its late-night cable brethren than it does with typical multiplex fare.
Don't misinterpret my comments as a knock on Wild Things, however. Yes, it's trash, but it's gleeful trash.
The film knows and comprehends its nature and it never really aspires to be anything but sleazy fun. Never do you get the feeling that the filmmakers try to make any grand statements, as it delivers a thriller in a soap opera setting.
In the wealthy South Florida village of Blue Bay, sexy senior Kelly Van Ryan (Denise Richards) accuses guidance counselor Sam Lombardo (Matt Dillon) of rape. Though local cops Sergeant Ray Duquette (Kevin Bacon) and Detective Gloria Perez (Daphne Rubin-Vega) initially doubt the veracity of her story, classmate Suzie Toller (Neve Campbell) offers corroborating details from her own alleged assault at Sam’s hands, so Lombardo goes to trial.
This unravels when Suzie admits that she and Kelly made up the whole narrative. Though Sam goes free, complications ensue and take the tale down a wicked road.
As mentioned, Wild Things simply aspires to become a lurid thriller, and it largely succeeds. It takes the viewer on a fairly convoluted ride through a variety of mostly implausible plot twists and turns and it frequently ends up in unexpected places.
You won't find terribly crisp or memorable dialogue, and you won't find extremely compelling characters. You will get a story that feels worth watching, however.
In fact, I was surprised to discover that Wild Things works for re-watching. When I first took it in, I thought it seemed
enjoyable but nothing special.
Because the film seemed to really rely on the element of surprise, I didn't anticipate that it would be very interesting the second time. I already knew what strange turns the story would take, so it didn’t feel like a tale that would work on second inspection.
To my surprise, I found the second viewing to be at least as enjoyable as the first. While I think part of this was because I found it interesting to examine the events more from the perspective of the characters as they actually understood things - not as you think they interpret their environment - I really can't explain why the film remained compelling for me.
Okay, some of the steamy scenes didn't hurt. If I ever get tired of watching Neve Campbell and Denise Richards make out, please shoot me.
While Wild Things probably contains less sex than its B-movie cable compatriots, it nonetheless heats things up more than most theatrical releases. There are also a fair number of seemingly gratuitous shots of Denise Richards in skimpy outfits.
While some may argue that these bits are unnecessary, I disagree. This film has no real reason to exist if not for its sexy nature, and the picture really seems to revel in that fact.
The shots of women in revealing outfits didn't seem exploitative to me. At the risk of sounding glib, it all appeared to be in the gleefully trashy spirit of the movie.
And for the record, no one in the film bares more than Kevin Bacon, who lets us all see his schlong. For those opposed to nude scenes in movies, this probably won't help - male or female nudity shouldn't matter - but at least the film took an equal opportunity approach to the matter.
Truly it is the quality of the film that makes it more notable than the cable classics. Not only does this mean the movie looks and sounds good, but also this allows the filmmakers to attract a much higher caliber of acting talent than would normally be found in this kind of project.
Both Dillon and Bacon are good but unspectacular as the male leads. Bill Murray and Robert Wagner make great use of their supporting roles.
However, the most interesting acting really comes from the female leads. In 1998, much was made about how Campbell took this role to combat her "good girl" image and how it would be such a stretch for her.
I agree that her white trash character definitely takes her into different territory than she entered in Party of Five and Scream, but unfortunately she doesn't seem to alter her acting style much. She still comes across as her usual sweet/semi-vulnerable self, so no matter how nasty she should seem, she keeps that little twinkle in her eye that made her popular.
Richards, on the other hand, becomes a different story. Whatever acting reputation she made stemmed largely on her roles in Starship Troopers and The World Is Not Enough. Her work in those two flicks didn’t exactly line her up to look toward a future Oscar.
It made sense to cast Theresa Russell as Kelly’s mother in Wild Thing. Russell built a career in the 1980's as a vixen with no acting talents, so why not make connect her to Richards, a woman who seemed set to inherit that mantle?
Surprisingly, however, Richards acquits herself well in Wild Things. Oh, she's no Olivier - though Olivier probably wouldn't have succeeded in the role, since he's a man and he's dead - but she nonetheless does some pretty good work here.
It probably helps that unlike her fighter pilot role in Starship Troopers, here she plays a conniving sexpot who uses her looks and her money to get what she wants. That kind of role feels more logical for Richards. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Richards actually can come across as less wooden than Pinocchio.
No one will ever confuse Wild Things for a classic, but it sits as a good example of its genre. It does what it does well and offers a frisky and interesting piece of fluff.
