Tempted

Well,as i don't have a TV yet in my new place i rent movies pretty much and i picked Tempted today. The combination of Burt Reynolds and Saffron Burrows in the same movie made me wonder how it would be like and the story looked interesting so i had a go and must say i quite liked it...In fact i think i want to see it again to have a closer look at it but so far so good. It's one of those movies where you need to scratch your head to fully understand the motivation of the characters and after you see it, you are still trying to figure it out:why did he/she do that? The whole cast is interesting but i must say that Burt Reynolds was a surprise as we don't see him that often in movies anymore and it's disturbing me.. but i still don't know if it's in a good or bad way... His character in the movie being obsessive might as well fit the fact that we are not used to see him acting that way.. Saffron Burrows's character Lilly is enigmatic and as far as i am concerned she does a pretty good job. And Peter Facinelli is the victim in all this. Never saw him before but he convinced me pretty much even tho i was also distracted by his good look..

What i liked about the movie and makes it interesting is the improvisation of the actors.It's unusual and hard,so i give an A+ for that.

The movie was shot in New-Orleans,it gives a mysterious and dangerous aura to it..Seems like you can feel the moisture if you know what i mean..

Well,see it for yourself is my advice,you might be amazingly surprised.

Burt Reynolds looked spooky with his new facelift, but no one can take away his first-rate timing in line delivery, and his character in this semi-clever thriller from writer/director Bill Bennett is aptly creepy and unpredictable. The plot is quite intriguing: a rich old man hires a handsome young carpenter to test the fidelity of his beautiful young wife. There's money, power, and sex on the table, and the performers revel in Bennett's seething New Orleans atmosphere. Burt's surprisingly effective voiceover at the start of the film gives us a backdrop of sweaty summers and secretive swamps, and Bennett's persuasive presentation makes most of the film's more or less preposterous suggestions seem believable, even downright irresistible.

"Tempted" sounds like a great idea. It's about a wealthy man who hires a young law student to "tempt" his wife, in order for the wealthy man to see if she's loyal to him. Naturally, the wealthy man is crazy jealous, and eventually there are a lot of dead bodies.

Burt Reynolds is by far the best actor on this film. For whatever reason Burt has gone through his own marriage troubles and he brings that out in staggering fashion. The movie was worth it because of Burt.

However everything ELSE about the film - the other actors, the script, photography, etc. etc. is very average.

If there's anything a lower budget film should excel in, it's the script - because that's where you make up for lack of money for the rest of the project. But it was clumsy, overworked, cliched, .. a draft that's been through too many Hollywood "story seminars" - there are too many clunky plot elements in a bland effort to liven things up, when it should have been fixed by sticking to the main story and improving the ACTING, and little details that add to the overall mood.

There's a subplot regarding a murder conspiracy that's majorly half-baked - it seems like the start of ANOTHER script by the same writer, but simply not out of the oven yet.

Most of the actor's emotions don't track well through the film - except for Burt. The supposed "feelings" between the law student and the wife always come off as hollow. Even when she's supposedly trying to kill him, they have one last sheepish meeting at a bar with awkward dialog - it doesn't make sense. Her motivation for sleeping with him turned out to be interesting though..

The movie seems to share a lot in common with "Body Heat" - an 80's film script touted as a winner by the king of script hacks, Syd Field. There's the wealthy husband, the beautiful but dangerous wife, and the morally ambiguous lawyer. The difference? Body Heat kept things simple - and William Hurt played the young lawyer.

In summary, watch it for BURT, man that guy can act. I found the whole idea of him creating a "self fulfilling prophecy" fascinating - it's almost like he relentlessly (and fatally) stabs himself emotionally and doesn't know why.

New Orleans businessman Burt Reynolds takes it into his head to test wife Saffron Burrows' fidelity. He gives day laborer Peter Facinelli $10,000 to try to seduce her, and promises another $40,000 if he succeeds. At first she's not interested. However, when Reynolds' secretary tells her about the matter, she sleeps with Facinelli. This sets off a chain of betrayal and murder.

There are a couple of plot hole and a couple of very convenient coincidences in this movie, but it was effective, mostly because the performers are good enough to mask their conflicted emotions throughout. Reynolds is good, although he can't do a New Orleans or Cajun, or whatever he's supposed to be accent, and Miss Burrows is a very skinny and attractive young woman in a couple of soft-core porn scenes. With Mike Starr, Carol Sutton, and Eric Mabius.

"Tempted" tries to be one of those sweaty New Orleans noir crime flicks about infidelity, jealousy, deceit, temptation, treachery, and murder. Unfortunately the film plays out like a B-flick in all respects from shallow characters whom were not given a reason to care if they live or die to a convoluted and minimally interesting story with soporific side effects. A marginal small screen watch at best for crime junkies only. (D+)