Adultes consentants

Alan J. Pakula's 'Consenting Adults' is A Decent Thriller! It has some catchy moments & convincing performances working for it.

'Consenting Adults' Synopsis: A man is falsely accused of murdering his neighbor's wife.

'Consenting Adults' has its share of minuses, but what makes most of the goings-on work, is its brisk Screenplay Written by Matthew Chapman. It has some good, catchy moments, that are note-worthy. Alan J. Pakula's is perfect. Cinematography is good.

Performance-Wise: Kevin Kline is excellent. Has there ever been a better scene-stealer? Kevin Spacey makes a good menace, although he's been better. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is fabulous in a performance that ranks amongst her finest to date. Rebecca Miller is highly effective. Forest Whitaker is believable.

On the whole, 'Consenting Adults' has merits.

I know this movie has had a lot of mixed reviews, but I really liked it. It had me on the edge of my seat the whole time, and it had just the right amount of mystery, excitement, sex, violence, and drama to make me want to rent it again. It might not be the best movie to pick to watch with your married friends, but for a group of girls or guys to watch separately, it'll make for a very interesting evening!

Kevin Kline and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio are a married couple in the suburbs who like to play it safe. Their neighbors, Kevin Spacey and Rebecca Miller, are a bit more reckless. Sometimes friendships with yin and yang balance themselves out, with the reckless friend pulling the cautious one out of his comfort zone, and the shy one keeping the daring one from getting into trouble. That's what Kevin 1 thinks will happen when the foursome become friends. There's a bit more spice than he bargained for when Kevin 2 suggests they swap wives for one night.

There's also a lot more to the plot than I've just told you, but it's a lot more entertaining when you watch it rather than read it. What are you waiting for? Grab your gal pals and a cocktail shaker and get ready for a bumpy ride!

This movie had been in my Netflix Queue for sometime and I decided to give it a watch after meeting Mary Elizabeth Mastrontonio in person (very gracious lady). Anyway, I'd seen the film before, but it had been many years. After viewing it again this time around, I came to the same conclusion. The first half of the story is very engaging and interesting. Kevin Spacey is brilliant in one of his early roles. Mastrontonio and Kline are also very appealing. You like the characters and you care about them. However, the second half of the film, the "thriller" portion, is so lame and unrealistic that I completely lost interest. It's as if the writers simply gave up on how to finish this film off. They created very interesting characters, set up a nice story, but the story didn't have anyplace interesting to go. I'd love for someone to try a rewrite of this thing. Anyway, not much going on here with this film. The only relevance it has is if you are a Spacey, Kline, or Mastrontonio fan. Rating 5 of 10 stars and that is being somewhat kind.

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.