La fièvre au corps

I stumbled across 'Body Heat' recently during a late night channel surf, and I would have to say that I was also pleasantly surprised at the high quality of this movie.

Though the acting and direction are top notch, I felt the music really pushed the movie over the top. The hauntingly melancholic string work serves not only as ambiance, but also acts as narrative. The sweet yet cautionary score mirrors the plot theme of 'moth to the flame'- obvious danger yet unavoidably seductive beauty. To this day, it sends chills down my spine!

p.s. Ted Danson's 'happy go lucky, dancing fool' role is sublime. Reminds me of his 'Creepshow' role around this same time period, which is also great.

A lightning fast affair develops between the ultra-hot and erotic Kathleen Turner and small-time Florida attorney William Hurt in the middle of an unprecedented heatwave in "Body Heat", arguably the most under-rated and most under-appreciated movie of the 1980s. Turner is the wife of a ridiculously rich businessman (Richard Crenna) and soon an elaborate plan hatches to kill him so the duo can be together forever. Naturally there is a lot more to Turner than meets the eye (Boy that is an understatement!) and Hurt becomes trapped in a super-steamy, but also highly dangerous relationship. Will the heat be too much for him in the end and are Turner's motives as clear as they appear? "Body Heat" could best be described as "Double Indemnity" for the sexed-up 1980s crowd. The sex is excessive and intense. By the end of the picture you feel like you had known Turner and Hurt for years (even though both were relative newcomers). Writer/director Lawrence Kasdan hit a major grand-slam with his first film-making venture. He had done work writing for the "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" group of films, but this was the first project where he went exclusively out on his own. No one knew really what to make of the movie in 1981 and thus it did fair business at the box office and was indifferent with the critics (it failed any Oscar consideration). As the years pass it becomes monumentally important to modern film-making and a classic homage to film noir-styled over-excesses. Brilliantly made in every way, well-acted, superbly written and directed, "Body Heat" is one of those films that forces you to look, let your hair down and eventually loosen your collar. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

The coastal Florida town in Lawrence Kasdan's Body Heat brings to mind remote colonial outposts in movies like The Letter (nearby Miami, here, seems as far away as London). A sweltering spell of weather settles down for a long roost, and the distant glow of an old hotel – a relic of the peninsula's past as an exotic getaway for northerners with money – lights the opening scene; it's been torched for the insurance, an occurrence so common as to warrant little comment.

It's a town where William Hurt, a lawyer who's neither very bright nor very scrupulous, ekes out a modest existence that seems to suit him; he can dine at the best restaurant in town once a month so long as he doesn't order an appetizer. The rest of his time he spends lazily with bourbon or beer or in bed with whoever obliges him.

Then he meets up with Kathleen Turner, who hangs around cocktail lounges when her wheeler-dealer husband (Richard Crenna) is out of town, which is a lot. After the ritual game of cat-and-mouse, Turner and Hurt kindle a torrid romance, despite the enervating heat that keeps everything else limp as dishrags. Soon, the pillow talk works around to murder....

Of course, Body Heat is a latter-day version of the story for which Double Indemnity serves as archetype: Duplicitous woman seduces lust-addled stud into killing rich older husband, then leaves him to twist slowly, slowly in the wind. There's not even enough wind to stir the chimes that festoon the porch off Turner's bedroom -- can't the rich old cuckold spring for air conditioning? Hurt and Turner are reduced to emptying the refrigerator's ice tray into the post-coital bath they share -- but Hurt's left twisting nonetheless, in one of the better updates of this ageless tale.

In her movie debut, Turner makes her deepest impression with her best asset, that dimple-Haig voice of hers, all silk and smoke (but neither she nor Kasdan, who also wrote the script, quite justify her character's long and intricate back-story of ruthless scheming). With his long, lithe college-boy's build and wife-swapper's mustache left over from the '70s, Hurt embodies the self-satisfied patsy whose zipper leads him through life. Crenna (who played this Walter Neff role in the 1973 TV remake of Double Indemnity) now takes on the role of the disposable husband, the victim (or rather, the first victim).

But it's two smaller parts that give the movie a special shine. Mickey Rourke, as the local arsonist whom Hurt once helped out of a jam, ups the voltage in his two scenes, warning the heedless Hurt, then warning him again when it's all but too late. And, as Hurt's amiable adversary in the town's tiny legal circle, Ted Danson proves surprisingly spry and intuitive an actor (and he contributes a lovely little idyll, doing a soft-shoe routine under a street lamp on a pier). There's a twist or two too many in Body Heat -- it's a bit gimmicky -- but, after watching it, you feel as though you, too, should be stripping off your clothes, if only to wring them out.

Writer/director Kasden got just about everything right in this his first feature. The dialogue crackles as befits a neo noir and John Barry's score is always there to to support or promote some wondrous visuals. Kathleen Turner is quite astonishing in this her first film. Her boldness and bravery in the sex scenes ensure that this sizzles from the off and I guess helps to draw attention away from what is really going on. William Hurt hasn't made many films before this and he too seems very relaxed and easy with regard to the nude and non nude sequences. His banter with his colleagues is as believable as his smouldering tete-a-tetes with his co-star. Mickey Rourke is effective in a key small role and the whole thing moves very well. Having seen this upon its original theatrical release, I have always held it in high regard, feeling upon this Blu-ray viewing that it didn't quite race throughout as I had 'remembered' and there seemed to be a slight imbalance on the sound. But hey - excellent film with fine performances.

Undoubtedly one of the great film noir thrillers in history. Derivative but superbly stylised by director Kasdan and wonderfully realised by Hurt and Turner.

Hurt is a very great actor. He had a string of well played roles in the '80s (Kiss of the Spider Woman, Children of a lesser god, Gorky Park) but his movie career lost momentum after that. Perhaps it's difficult for a cerebral actor like him to find challenging parts. Turner is super sexy, proving that a voluptuous figure or great facial features are not essentials to be a turn on. I hear that Body Heat was her first film. She plays her role with understated confidence.

The underrated theme music too is very good. Supporting cast is effective. Really no faults with this movie. Kasdan did an accomplished job. One can't help but be disappointed that he did not make many more good movies.

Some leading critics complain that the ending was over elaborate. I disagree. I think the ending touch works well with the atmosphere and momentum of the movie towards the end. This being a genre film noir movie, the plot is typical and familiar to almost anyone, but it still has great power and the movie irresistibly sucks the viewer in. You can't but help but admire the skills of the actors and Kasdan's sophisticated direction. The music is marvelously complimentary all the way through.

Great stuff.