This I am afraid to say is a very proficient and ultimately rather nasty piece of work. Daniela Nardini (sex on legs, as usual) plays a rather harassed CID officer involved in the investigation of a series of rapes, all conducted near London's Grand Union Canal. (The whole thing seems to have been filmed in Islington). As she follows up various leads, fending off her unpleasant supervisor's advances, she discovers that one of the suspects is uncomfortably close to home her doctor sister's ludicrously good-looking psychiatrist boyfriend, Oliver (Greg Wise). This man is so charming that Daniela (who no man can resist) goes to bed with him too.
There is plenty of suspense as the investigation proceeds and it becomes apparent that events many years before at Oxford medical school have a bearing on the case. The 'explanation' at the end beggars belief it's far too complicated and full of holes. It's just an excuse for putting poor Daniela through an experience no-one should be subject to cinematic sadism, in fact. She's a good actress and does what is asked of her, but the writers and producers are engaged in pure exploitation here. If you like watching a beautiful, sexy and personable woman suffer from rough treatment by men, this is your movie. Perhaps the explanation is in the title the mindset that blames women for being attractive to men, and punishes them accordingly when men succumb.
Actually it's a pity about the ending because the story is well paced and economically told over 150 minutes and there are good performances from Sarah Parish as the sister, Philip Glenister as Daniela's charmless boss and Greg Wise as Oliver the psychiatrist. The set decorators should be complemented as well on capturing the essence of Islington yuppiedom. There's not much sign of the 'London Marxist Borough' any more.
