9 1/2 Weeks

9 1/2 Weeks

Arriving in the veil of mystery and scandal, the movie “ 9 1/2 Weeks” is already infamous as the most explicitly sexual big-budget film since “Last Tango in Paris.” I was looking for erotic brinksmanship (how far will its famous stars go in the name of their art?) and ended up surprised by how thoughtful this movie is, how well it understands what really happens between its characters.

That’s not to say this isn’t an exciting film. I suppose that a project like this depends crucially on the chemistry between its actors, and Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke develop an erotic tension in this movie that is convincing, complex and sensual.

They play strangers who meet one day in a Chinese grocery store in Manhattan Elizabeth, a smart, attractive assistant at a Soho art gallery; John, a smiling enigmatic commodities broker. The first meeting sets the tone for the whole movie; it is quiet masterpiece of implication. She waits by a counter. There’s someone behind her she thinks. She turns around to make eye contact with him. He smiles.

She looks away again. It really surprises her how much power there was in that look they exchanged. For quite some time she hesitates but then turns back, meets his eyes once more perhaps more boldly this time, and turns away again immediately after. And when he walks off along the street some minutes later she looks at him very curiously.

They meet again soon enough their relationship begins and Adrian Lyne chronicles it first in an Elizabeth McNeill novel (formerly bestseller) which has now been adapted into film starring Mickey Rourke by director Adrian Lyne of Flashdance fame.” From start it’s obvious that they won’t follow an orthodox pattern of courtship or romance.

He proposes to her outright – an experimental erotic relationship.

The first time he seriously touches her is to blindfold her eyes. They move into areas of sexual intercourse that are often written about in Penthouse’s letters, and for the most part Elizabeth is willing to let John decide. He enjoys dominating her, hence as she “gives” herself to him, she forgets the world and embarks on a dreamy erotic journey.

In scene that may well be the most discussed in film history, he covers her eyes with blindfold and then starts feeding her all sorts of strange foods: sweet-and-sour, different textures each one a surprise for her. It’s amazing how this scene becomes so tactile to watch in this movie. As John calls at unlooked-for hours, orders her to unusual places for meetings, they reach deeper into their obsession with every such request coming from him.

The movie contrasts their private life with the everyday world of her work: with the small talk and gossip of the art gallery; with a visit she pays to an old artist who lives like a hermit in the woods; with intrigue as her ex-husband dates another woman from their gallery.

This everyday material is an interesting strategy: it shows that Elizabeth McNeill and John are playing a conscious game that takes place outside of the real world.

The movie is eventually redeemed by Elizabeth’s hold on the real world. Her hold on the real world redeems the movie eventually. This is what finally redeems the film for me and sets up its thoughtful and surprising conclusion. It is redemption with regard to this that will make it more than only a soft-core escapade, and that will enable it assume a thoughtful as well as an unpredictable ending.

Elizabeth would have no problem if John could see her game, or rather their game in which she becomes his slave for their mutual entertainment while also maintaining their self-respect through her “well behaved behavior”. In fact, she wouldn’t mind being an obedient slave to John in any of his games if it wasn’t for some few challenging aspects of them that challenge her self esteem.

However, some of these games are starting to become more painful to her. Is he trying to involve her in an erotic play mentally and physically or does he want her to degrade herself? At two points may Elizabeth puts down the limit where she is saying “no” not anymore; then at third time she will choose independence as well as dignity over what looks like insanity from him.

By juxtaposing sexual liberation with responsibility at the end of “9 ½ weeks.” It ends with an argument against sexual liberation but for sexual responsibility.

Some scenes really do not work for me in this film. For instance, there is a scene when John and Elizabeth run through midnight streets of a dangerous part of Manhattan fleeing from hostile people until they get sheltered by passageway where they make love under rain showers. More than anything else, I think that this scene owes nothing to human possibility but instead relies on unrealistic gymnastics.

During another episode John has gone into one shop selling harnesses together with Elizabeth whereby he purchases a whip as the store assistants look at him again slowly before whooshing it around with wide eyes open on his part standing there watching him. The whip is never used in any subsequent scene. I’m not saying there should be; I am just arguing that it is like Camille coughing in the first reel and not dying in the last, would it? She just didn’t come across as some lovely plaything who could be manipulated into a million positions, or she would have ended up being a model.

Any story such as “9 ½ weeks” runs the risk of appearing utterly ridiculous. For example, actors like these are taking a great deal of chance when they appear in it. Audiences become uneasy about plots like this and if there is no thin line between believable and outrageous, it turns into sheer idiocy. Most of the work done in “9 1/2 Weeks” is carried out by Rourke and Basinger on their characters to make them believable and their relationship real.

Rourke’s strategy involves refraining from giving away too much. He remains mysterious for her amusement sake while for his whole shtick he needs to remain unknown to her at all times too. On the other hand, Basinger’s plan is equally good but more complicated than Rourke’s. Physically she looks lush and sensual; her first appearance has a lot of impact especially if you caught sight of her ever before in ‘Fool for Love.’ But had she acted merely as one beautiful specimen among many lab rats, then it could have borrowed more from modeling than acting itself.

At the beginning scenes, while she is working at the gallery, she does a superb work of pretending to be preoccupied by this love affair; her eyes go dark and her attention wanders. However, its one enchantment lies in her gradual personality’s reemergence and self-assertion which makes it completely hers.

Another recent film called “The Hitcher” also involves sadomasochistic relationships. Since it doesn’t have the courage to tell us what it’s really about but instead glorifies its character’s cruel actions, I felt nothing more than repugnance and uneasiness. Not only is ‘9 1/2 Weeks’ a better movie, it is also more humane that attempts to differentiate sexual experimentation from what constitutes human being; something much deeper and precious sexier by far.

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