Fleur de poison

Drew Barrymore plays Ivy a Lolita-like teen that gradually moves in with a shy reclusive classmate Sylvie(Sara Gilbert)and the presence of the streetwise Ivy starts a chain reaction of mixed emotions. Sylvie's self destructive mother(Cheryl Ladd)is jealous of her husband's(Tom Skerritt) reaction to Ivy's seductive ways. Soon he is hooked and can't get enough of the perverse teen. Questions arise concerning the death of Sylvie's mother about the time Sylvie realizes what is going on between her father and Ivy.

My favorite scene is the sultry love making in the rain on the car hood. It is hard to tell who is seducing who. The 17 year old Barrymore is hypnotic. I couldn't take my eyes off of her. Kudos to Katt Shea for directing this erotic thriller. Note: Look for a young Leonardo DiCaprio.

By all rights this should have been yet another R-rated sex and violence flick about a piece of immoral jailbait having her wicked way with everyone around her, but the directing and acting are good enough to make it more effective than most, even touching. The atmosphere is almost haunting, and the relationships between the characters (especially the two teenage girl leads) are well developed enough to hold your interest.

Sara Gilbert gives the film a sympathetic center, she's excellent as a bright, likeable high school girl who finds herself in far over her head when she befriends poor little bad girl Drew Barrymore. Her misery and frustration as Barrymore takes over her family, her life, even her dog are moving enough to make the flimsy story work. Barrymore wasn't much of an actress at that age (still isn't, in my opinion), but she's very effective nonetheless. She doesn't need to act, she needs to do what she does, look sexy. Really, really sexy, like it's all she ever thinks about. Cheryl Ladd also does surprisingly well as Gilbert's slowly dying mother.

The movie also has moments of an almost haunting quality. The score is lovely, alternately passionate and strangely moody, and gives the film enough emotional intensity to make me forgive its many flaws. Even Barrymore kissing Gilbert. Eeeew.

Drew Barrymore performs excellent in this movie, she plays the role of a seductress quite well, from the first scene with her friend's dad to the last seen. The most Important is the way the characters are portrayed, the direction is superb.

Nabokov's Lolita used the affections of a fawning, elderly man (her stepfather) for her own purposes--which never amounted to much more than sex and cash. It only figures that today's Lolita would be dressed to kill, literally. As Drew Barrymore plays her here, she's a sexy homicidal figure with maternal delusions. "Poison Ivy" begins rather endearingly, with high school outcast Sara Gilbert (looking like the modern equivalent of a teen beatnik) befriended by a striking blonde student with lots o' leg and a fake tattoo. This wanton woman-child has no name; Gilbert calls her "Ivy" and Barrymore likes that ("It gives me the opportunity to start over," she says). The tone of the picture shifts however before the midway point, with Ivy infiltrating Gilbert's dysfunctional household and seducing dad Tom Skerritt (doing terrific work). Gilbert's narration--and the surreal jumble which becomes the hectic climax--is rather off-putting, but there's a great deal of worth in Barrymore's solid performance. The film is stylish on a low-budget and is actually steamier than "Nine 1/2 Weeks". Yet, it's really two different pictures struggling within the context of one. A stronger screenplay might've brought the two halves together, although, as the director, Katt Shea Ruben manages to come up with a commendable amount of incidents both amusing and titillating. ** from ****

It would be the easiest thing to simply dismiss this film as yet another sleazy erotic melodrama (which it undoubtedly is), but the result is too intriguing, and too offbeat, to be ignored. Although this film will disappoint those who are expecting a well-made thriller or even an explicitly erotic movie because it's tame and practically suspenseless, it has an air of weirdness and morbidity that places it slightly above most of the run-of-the-mill entries in this genre. The performances are mostly one-note but convincing enough. Visually, it's a grim, underproduced film, but it does have a "special" atmosphere.