SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Micitype Pretty Good

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

loig7 The story goes like this : Donald Cammell died , heartbroken by the producers' typical butchering of his film, which was released as a "straight to late Friday night" sleazy thriller; ...and, with hindsight, it's easy to believe this. Thankfully, the director's assistant was able to re-cut the movie, according to the artist's wishes and, as a result, ... "Wild Side" is a mindsuck ("suck" is not the actual appropriate word I had in mind here ) of a masterpiece.It grips you from the first scene (what on Earth is going on here, who's what, is the cop bad, is the bad girl good ??), through its barely credible tortuous twists and double-crossings, until the unescapable -and yet unpredictable- end. Followed by another end, of course.The involvement of the actors, their very limited number -hardly anyone else than the damned foursome dares cross the threshold into Cammell's world- works to perfection, as it introduces some kind of claustrophobic atmosphere (there is supposed to be a world outside these half-lit hotel rooms, but we won't see much of it until the last sequence). These four characters drift in and out, each less trustworthy than the last : past ten minutes, it will be hard to remember who's supposed to be forming an alliance against who. Key word here : intensity. Hey, the, er..., climax of the film involves the -explicitly not homosexual- gangster (almost or not : up to you to find out) raping his male driver, an undercover cop, just to prove his love to a prostitute ! Confused ? Yes, you will be, and that's nothing compared to the actual script : everyone works very hard to double-cross everyone else, not least their lover.And now, let's tackle the major asset of this film : its acting.Amazing. By now, it is pretty obvious to everyone that Anne Heche is a truly terrific actress, all ambiguity and secret resolves. She certainly doesn't disappoint her growing number of admirers here. Steven Bauer , who plays the cop, has -quite simply- never been near as impressive as he is here. But the cherry on the cake, the surge after the lollipop, the tour de force extraordinaire, has to be credited to who else but Christopher Walken.Christopher Walken, as we know, IS Christopher Walken -no introduction needed, but in "Wild Side", he just... delivers his most demented performance to date, if you can start to imagine. His endlessly fascinating ambisexual reptilian face, his weird yellowy skin, his eyebrowless laser eyes -not to forget a hair rock stars would advertise soda for-, the man is scary beyond frightening. He's not deranged, he's from another planet ! Nearly incomprehensible. Let us be very clear here : "Wild Side" is an absolute must for all Christopher Walken fans out there.There will never be another Donald Cammell film, and that's a real tragedy. Especially when you bear in mind that the man co-authored mandatory-cult-movie "Peformance", yes, the very one "Performance" that sent E. Fox over the edge for a few years. Thanks God, Christopher Walken still walks amongst us lesser mortals (and occasionally steals an entire Tarantino scripted movie by only appearing five minutes).

Geofbob The following comments are based on the Tartan DVD entitled "Donald Cammell's Wild Side", also referred to as the director's cut, though it was produced after his death. I made the mistake of initially thinking this was a plot-driven movie while watching it, and only later realised it was intended to be character-driven. Cammell and his wife and co-writer, China Kong, bamboozle us with a convoluted plot about laundering vast sums of money, computer viruses etc, but all this counts for little. The real focus is the tangled relationship between the four main characters, and especially between the two women - Anne Heche's bank employee/callgirl Alex, and her lover Virginia played by Joan Chen. The scenario treats both female characters sympathetically, in contrast to the two men - Bruno, the unbalanced, crooked high financier, menacing and whining by turns; and Tony, his equally unbalanced but cruder bodyguard/undercover FBI agent, played by Christopher Walken and Steven Bauer respectively. Walken convincingly portrays a man who has so lost touch with reality that he can only communicate by playing a role, and usually playing it badly. It isn't clear whether Bauer is imitating Walken's acting style, or his character Tony is imitating Bruno's persona; either way it emerges as over-acting but without Walken's charisma. If in terms of the characters the women are treated more fairly than the men, the same cannot be said about the movie's treatment of Heche and Chen as actors; they suffer much the same sexploitation as the actresses in a soft porn film. Overall, the film has curiosity value, and the photography is superb; but there is little else to commend it. However, a good reason to rent the DVD is because it contains Cammell's long-lost amusing short, The Argument, set in superb Utah scenery.

aidan-12 It's addictive, once you get into it - Christopher Walken's Bruno uckingham - a multimillionaire money-launderer - is dangerous and unpredictable.A casual sexual encounter between him and call girl Alex, played by Ann Heche, develops into a love triangle, or rectangle if you include Walken's obnoxious and predatory driver, played by Steven Bauer. The driver turns out to be working undercover. Walken's wife/girlfriend arrives on the scene and you have a passionate all female sexual encounter between her and the Ann Heche, who is also leading a double life.But there's a scam going on - Bruno Buckingham plans to disrupt the banking system with a computer virus and use the opportunity to transfer millions of dollars of ill-gained funds. A sting is planned by the police, but will it be successful?A simple plot, but complex encounters between various characters, captured on a hand-held camera, and with the beautiful and haunting background music of Ryuichi Sakamoto, make for a highly intriguing and watchable film, if you like this sort of thing (I do). I loved the momentary flashbacks of sex scenes in the character's head as she's in the office. A little bit quirky, like the films of director Nicholas Roeg.Christopher Walken is remarkable, with his menacing and almost other-worldly on-screen presence. Ann Heche is captivating, and the love scenes between her and Buckingham's wife/lover, played by Virginia Chow, are quite passionate, and have the quality of a real encounter.If you're expecting a simple dénouement, don't. As in real life things aren't cut and dry, though the ending is satisfying.

m0vieguy Words really can't capture the experience of watching this film. They can try, but they won't make it. The plot is so convoluted that to claim it makes no sense is like stating that Ed Wood movies "aren't very good". Go and rent this film, and watch it because it is "peachy".