WILD THINGS (1998)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
"Wild Things" has no one dependable to keep things interesting. The story has Matt Dillon (wildly miscast) as Lombardo, a respected high-school teacher who is convicted of raping two local teenage beauties of the "Scream" variety, the rich blonde Kelly Van Ryan (Denise Richards) and the girl from the alligator nests' living in a trailer, Suzie (Neve Campbell). And that's about as far as I can go in describing the plot except to say that Kevin Bacon shows up as a clean-cut cop, and Bill Murray hilariously plays a shyster.
Although "Wild Things" is sleazy, exploitative to an extent and often cheesy, the film's twists and turns are much too apparent. Perhaps, I've seen too many film noir thrillers but I could anticipate its every move, excluding Kevin Bacon's stunning reversal of roles that I'll keep mum about. The other flaw is that the complex weaving of twists reveals little about the characters or their humanity. In the best tradition of film noir with classics that range from "Double Indemnity" to "Chinatown," there was always an identification with the protagonists and an understanding of the motives for their actions, no matter how depraved. Here, there is no one to identify with on any level, possibly because no effort was made to make the characters' personalities real or consistent - they appear to be cartoon characters out of a Vogue fashion spread. The only character worth caring about is Neve Campbell's Suzie, but then we learn she's not quite what she seems either.
I miss the old days of film noir when the dialogue sparkled and cut the air like stabbing someone's back. The atmosphere was always there, but it served as an existential backdrop for the sins of mortal men and women. Desperation hung like an endlessly dripping wet blanket - it was omnipresent. "L.A. Confidential" and "Lost Highway" are the best recent examples of that type of noir. "Wild Things" is disorganized, silly and counterproductive.
