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Starring William Hurt, Kathleen Turner. It has become increasingly alarming. Each time I walk down the aisles of the 'mystery/suspense' section in the video store, I notice yet another new video with the word 'naked' in the title or tag line. A six foot blonde woman with spiked heels, a dress cut at her hips, holding an AK-47 is on the box cover. The plot line for these films are simple: the lead is a well-educated, well-paid ___________ (fill in job description) by day and a streetwalking hooker at night, engaging in unprotected sex because, well, because it will sell to the under 30 demographic group.Body Heat, released in 1981, was one of the first successful pioneers in the mystery/constant sex genre, paving the way for the likes of Basic Instinct, Jade, Sliver, Body Double, and the other "Let's Have Sex and Kill My Husband" movie, The Last Seduction. The first hour of Body Heat is both slow and simple: William Hurt and Kathleen Turner, who is married to another man, meet, complain about the heat, and have sex roughly nine times a day. This is both trying and annoying--you watch William Hurt naked. And you find yourself asking things like, "If it's so damn hot, why don't any of you people start wearing short sleeved shirts or short, for crying out loud?" As the second half of the film begins, Hurt concludes that he is in love with Turner--nothing says love like throwing a chair through a glass door--and decides that there is only one way to make their situation better; they have to kill Turner's husband. I could only think of about 20 better solutions to their problem, starting with Turner making the statement, "Okay, honey, I'll go down to the courthouse tomorrow and file for a divorce. I'm sure we can live very comfortable on your salary as a lawyer." But, against my better judgment, they begin making plans to carry out their nefarious and stupid plan. After the murder, small things begin to go wrong. Hurt can't find the dead man's glasses, and the glasses have his fingerprints on them. Detectives investigating the case also learn that Hurt, with Turner's help, changed the dead man's will just days before the murder. And so the characters sweat both physically and metaphorically for the remainder of Body Heat. Ted Danson and Mickey Rourke are particularly strong in their supporting roles and help camouflage Hurt's rather backboneless lead. Body Heat was a reasonably entertaining film, but lacked a certain degree of clarity. Writer-director Lawrence Kasdan occasionally assumes that the audience will make certain connections that he sees, but such is not always the case. Of the two "Let's Have Sex and Kill My Husband" movies, only The Last Seduction has any fun with its material. Body Heat often seemed more interested in putting T & A on the screen than with moving the plot forward. Both were well made films, but The Last Seduction stands out as the better of the two. See The Last Seduction.
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