Movies & TV / Reviews
Blast From The Past Reviews: Wild Things
Image Credit: Sony Pictures Releasing
Loading...As per usual with my movie reviews, I have already written the Two Ups And Two Downs segment before coming back “up here” to do my article’s introduction. And I feel a little bad about something I said down there, and I want to clarify it a bit.
I imply that Matt Dillon, the star and partial protagonist of today’s movie, is a product that Hollywood was trying to foist upon us in the 1990’s and 2000’s. It plays as though Mr. Dillon has vanished into thin air and that his career has dried up into nothing. That’s not fair! I reviewed the star’s Wikipedia page, and he has been getting steady cinematic work this whole century. He has, frankly, stayed busy at a rate a lot of stars would happily accept.
I guess it’s more of a thing where I haven’t personally been seeing the projects he has been accepting. So that’s on me! Not Matt Dillon.
Still, I’m not going to erase what I said down there because… seriously; remember when Matt Dillon was a thing, guys?
Anyway, we are here today to talk one of his most successful outings, Wild Things. From 1998, Wild Things was released as a type of erotic thriller, and it did well for itself as an R-rated attraction, grossing over 67 million dollars against a 20 million dollar budget. It came out when Dillon’s co-stars, Neve Campbell and Denise Richards, were red-hot, and the promise of seeing them in pool scenes together was more than the public could bear.
Dillon plays Mr. Lombardo, an affable high school guidance counselor who is preyed upon by Kelly (Richards). An unseen moment leads to Kelly accusing Mr. Lombardo of rape. As the town starts picking sides, a second girl named Suzy (Campbell) also comes forward with rape accusations against Mr. Lombardo.
Lombardo hires a scuzball attorney who makes Saul Goodman look reputable to defend himself, and the Southern bayou town is ready for their local trial of the century.
TWO UPS AND TWO DOWNS
+ Bill Murray is only in the first half of the film, but he really brightens up the proceedings while present. He injects the film with a bit of levity and charm that is sorely missing once he exits the production. Everything after he is gone is heavy-handed and so damn serious. I missed him and his brilliance in letting the air out of the balloon.
The rest of the cast is doing decent work for what the film is. Denise Richards is there to be titillating, Neve Campbell is there to be coy and play against type, Kevin Bacon is there to be the man putting the pieces together, and Matt Dillon is there to remind us of when Hollywood tried to make Matt Dillon a thing. But none of them are Murray, who stands out like a shining light. I wish the movie’s plot had some way of keeping him active throughout the second half.
+ The story is certainly interesting enough, in that when I thought things were just about wrapping up, there was a whole hour-plus left! I really had no idea what was still coming, and I was all the more intrigued to keep watching for that reason.
Wild Things‘ first act-plus is not really the story, and given that it’s about a high school guidance counselor allegedly raping two students, that’s nuts to say. But this picture is really all about what comes AFTER the trial. Not going to lie; there is a part of me that feels like that means Wild Things is playing fast and loose with the importance of rape, but the film has curves to take you on, and it just needs a way to get to them…
– That said, boy, there is such a thing as having TOO MANY twists and turns. The third act of this flick is just shocking twist after shocking turn. It certainly feels like Wild Things ends up doing reveals just to do them after a point. The movie is probably too long for that and too messy, and it causes sensibility to just fly out the window.
Obviously I won’t get into spoilers here so I can let you watch and experience the big moments for yourself, but I can picture the screenwriters of this effort being WAY prouder of themselves than they deserved to be. They must have thought they were the most clever writers in all of Hollywood, but really, they were just throwing surprises at the wall to see what stuck.
– The direction and the score are not that impressive here. The usage of music is downright distracting at times, and a lot of it is just damn goofy. I was really taken aback by how the score did not suit the scenes that well. It all sounds so cheesy and like it’s from an era decades prior to Wild Things‘ release.
Add in some unfocused direction that uses weird slow-mo tricks and cuts at times, and on a technical level, I was really not wowed by John McNaughton’s work. Like with the writing, McNaughton is clearly playing games with his direction just to see if it will work, and frankly? For me, it didn’t.
