Monday, March 14, 2011

MOVIE PLAYBACK: WILD THINGS

Wild Things is a 1998 erotic film starring Matt Dillon, Neve Campbell, Kevin Bacon, Denise Richards and Bill Murray. It was directed by John McNoughton. In some countries the film was released as Sex Crimes.

Sam Lombardo (Dillon) is a happy, sexually promiscuous high school guidance counselor in Blue Bay, Florida. That is, until the wealthy and popular Kelly Van Ryan (Richards) accuses him of raping her one day after she had washed his truck. When he gets back to work the next day word gets around school of the rumors and students throw a crudely drawn picture of Lombardo raping a young girl anally and pulling on her pigtails while doing so. Due to the Van Ryans' high social status and connections, Lombardo's career and life take a heavy toll. Lombardo hires unorthodox lawyer Kenneth Bowden (Murray), but is later incarcerated when a second student, unpopular, trailer trash Suzie Toller (Campbell), also accuses him of rape, with several factors matching Kelly's description of Lombardo's assault.
Lombardo is put on trial, where Bowden badgers Suzie, who admits that she and Kelly had made the whole thing up to get revenge on Lombardo. The Van Ryans are humiliated by the scandal, and Lombardo and Bowden negotiate a hefty settlement: 8.5 million dollars. Lombardo leaves town to retire after this, and encounters Kelly and Suzie at his hotel. It turns out that the three of them had been working together the entire time, and planned to split the money. To celebrate the money they have a threesome.
However, police Detective Ray Duquette (Bacon) becomes suspicious and begins investigating further. Suzie becomes increasingly nervous, and Lombardo and Kelly begin to worry that she will undermine the plan. Suzie and Kelly fight in the Van Ryan pool, where Kelly nearly drowns Suzie before the two make love. But then Lombardo and Kelly take Suzie down to the ocean, where Lombardo appears to murder Suzie with a wine bottle. Her blood and teeth are later found by the ocean by Duquette, who realizes that Lombardo must have killed Suzie, and goes to Kelly's to protect her. But when he arrives, she appears to attack him, shooting him in the arm, leaving him no choice but to kill her in self-defense. No charges are filed against Duquette, but he is discharged from the police force as a consequence of Kelly's death.
Later, while Lombardo is staying at a tropical resort, he finds Duquette in his shower. It turns out that the two of them had been working together the entire time. Although Lombardo is not pleased that Duquette killed Kelly insteading of framing her as originally planned, Duquette insists that it leaves fewer loose ends. The two drink a toast to "no loose ends", and agree to go fishing on Lombardo's sailboat the following day.
While on the boat far out to sea, Lombardo knocks Duquette overboard, but he soon climbs back aboard and attacks Lombardo. However, he is shot in the leg with a spear. The shooter is Suzie, who is still alive and has altered her appearance, as she had been hiding aboard the boat. When Duquette begs Lombardo to save him, Lombardo responds that Duquette should not have killed Kelly. Suzie fatally shoots and kills Duquette for killing Kelly and her friend, Davie, years before.
Suzie then poisons Lombardo, enabling her to take all the money.
It is revealed, through a series of flashbacks shown in the end credits, that Suzie had planned the whole thing in order to get all the money and not just a third (as well as the aforementioned revenge on Duquette) and that she has a very high IQ. As for Kelly's death, she had not attacked Duquette. Duquette had shot her twice in the chest and she died immediately, and then shot himself in the arm, so as to make it look like Kelly had shot him, and that he had to return fire in self defense.
In the final scene, Bowden meets Suzie at the tropical resort, and gives her most of the money (minus his "usual fee"). As she departs, he calls after her to "be good".

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