Gewagtes Spiel

This is odd. The director and co-star of "Sophie's Choice" teamed up again and made one of the most confusing movies. Kevin Kline and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio play a laid-back couple whose new neighbors (Kevin Spacey and Rebecca Miller) aren't quite what they seem. Spacey's role gives a faint hit of Lester Burnham, but there's no real way to compare "Consenting Adults" with "American Beauty". The movie is just weird. I'm befuddled as to how Alan J. Pakula, the man behind "Klute", "The Parallax View", "All the President's Men" and "Sophie's Choice", could fall down to this. Admittedly, not everyone can have a perfect record, but something as low-quality as this? Just bizarre.

Kevin Kline is cleverly framed for the murder of his best friend's wife, with a seemingly airtight case against him. Equal cleverness in working out this story seemed called for. Instead, the frame-up basically unravels by improbable happenstance and concludes with trite Hollywood-isms, finally throwing in the towel with a few assault-weapon blasts. Real subtle, yes?

Not too bad a way to pass the time, but ultimately a let-down.

Fans of Forest Whitaker ("The Crying Game") will be pleased to see this talented actor appearing as a very southern, shy, soft-spoken insurance investigator.

Here's a film I thought was unfairly criticized by the national critics. Panned by about everyone, I thought this thriller was pretty good.

Yes, there is one major credibility gap in a key segment which I, too was ridiculous. (How can you make love to your neighbor, even in darkness, and not know who it is?!) Also, there is a clichéd ending, but that's not unusual in films.

Overall, however, I thought it was entertaining and nicely filmed. I'd like to see this on a DVD with a better transfer. The main actors - Kevin Kline, Kevin Spacey, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio - were all interesting, especially Spacey's villain character. It was also interesting to E. G. Marshall, who was a big star on television years ago. I'm sorry his role was so short.

The film also had good suspense. All of these are why I think the film is a lot better than it's considered.

Consenting adults has a strong cast, a decent script and a deeper than expected story, that builds and sustains enough tension throughout; without sinking into as much sexually explicit detail, as the title may suggest.

Kevin Kline, Kevin Spacey, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Rebecca Miller all portray there characters well, with Spacey and Miller stealing most of the credit.

Consenting Adults is a reasonably safe choice for most thriller fans, it's not the best out there; but its entertaining and intriguing enough to please.

6/10

. . .but the weirdest thing is - it is eerily similar to the Aykroyd/Belushi film "Neighbors." Heavily derided in it's time, it matters not whether you liked it, it had some really weird elements to it. NOW - take out the weird elements and leave a basic plot: "Exciting" guy with a bad bleach-job and his sexy wife move in next door to thoroughly-mundane guy and his attractive wife; who, by the way have a sexless marriage. Kline/Belushi are set up as "marks" immediately, and almost as immediately the new neighbors begin a contrived "seduction of the innocent". Soon, the mundane guy finds himself trapped in an existential hell of Blondie's making(Spacey/Aykroyd). Well. Consenting Adults is not a good movie - or even interesting. Spacey gives a charismatic performance as usual, but the script lacks any originality. This was another entry in the ". . .from Hell" high-concept series of scripts from the early-90's. Babysitter. . .Cop. . .Neighbor. . .Dentist. ..I wish I could say that the best parts of this film ended up on the editing room floor - considering the cast - but there's no way this script was ever anything but stale.