Grammy® and Golden Globe® winner Madonna stars with Oscar® nominees* Willem Dafoe, Anne Archer and Julianne Moore in this "bold, shocking and titillating" ("Entertainment Tonight Radio") erotic thriller. Rebecca Carlson (Madonna) is a powerful woman. Intelligent, successful and breathtakingly beautiful, she can bring almost any man to his knees. And that's exactly where she wants them. But when a night of sexual abandon ends in the death of a prominent businessman, Rebecca finds herself on trial for murder. Now it's up to her attorney (Dafoe) to proveher innocence...but when he becomes entangled in her web of erotic game-playing, his body of evidence begins to contain as many curves as his client. *Dafoe: Supporting Actor, Shadow of the Vampire (2000); Platoon (1986); Archer: Supporting Actress, Fatal Attraction (1987); Moore: Actress, The End of the Affair (1999); Supporting Actress, Boogie Nights (1997); Supporting Actress, The Hours (2002); Actress, Far From Heaven (2002)Madonna isn't merely the prime suspect in the scandalous murder of a millionaire with kinky appetites; she's the murder weapon itself in this erotic thriller in the Basic Instinct mode. The art gallery owner by day and icy-blond dominatrix by night is accused of, shall we say, "loving" her victim to death, and Willem Dafoe is the happily married lawyer she lures into the dark thrills of pleasure and pain. The actual mystery is perfunctory at best and the absurd courtroom theatrics a mere formality in a film far more fascinated with sweaty sex, hot wax, and broken glass. Madonna isn't shy about her body and seems to enjoy the games her character plays, but she's no Sharon Stone; there's no danger smoldering behind her seduction. Like her notorious book Sex, this is a handsomely shot work of pure exhibitionism. --Sean Axmaker
Talking to your Kids about Sex: 9 a.m.-noon Nov. 2 or 1-4 p.m. Nov. 14; ; First Congregational United Church of Christ, 20 Oak St., Asheville. Facilitated by Kelley Wolfe, Ph.D. For more information and/or to register, e-mail terra@zealtoheal.com or call 335-7287.
