Divorced SoHo art gallery employee meets a coolly handsome, enigmatic Wall Street arbitrator who harbors a kinky side: he's into role-playing and emotional (and sexual) manipulation...also, he's a bit of a jerk. "Nine 1/2 Weeks", directed by Adrian Lyne and adapted from Elizabeth McNeill's novel by Patricia Knop, Zalman King and Sarah Kernochan, is almost-sexy, almost-erotic, but never very inviting. The central relationship between Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke is there to be busted up--and Lyne doesn't appear to be concerned with the characters, anyway (his thing seems to be gauzy supplement spreads of apartments and restaurants). The early sexual foreplay with the blindfold and ice cubes is hot stuff, even though the scene is curiously chopped short (presumably so as not to offend prudish Americans). But, as it turns out, all the sexual clinches have been edited in much the same way: the rush of passion, the brief flash of nudity (hers), some heavy breathing, end of scene! There are two or three playful moments (such as a food frenzy in the kitchen), but mostly it's a lot of whispered talk without much action--and unintentionally funny bits like Rourke attempting to get Basinger in the mood by playing Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit". **1/2 from ****
Review of 9½ Weeks
