And God Created Woman

I sat down to watch "And God Created Woman" because I used to enjoy Rebecca De Monay's movies when I was younger, but I never got around to watching this movie from 1988 before late in 2016.

I must admit that I didn't have much expectations to it, as I had no idea what this movie was about, and it is a 1980s movie after all. And the movie didn't turn out to be anything extraordinary.

Sure, there were some good and fun enough moments throughout the course of the movie, but in overall, then this was just a less than mediocre movie in terms of entertainment value.

It was nice to see Frank Langella in the movie, but he could only do so much to salvage the movie, as there was very little to work with in terms of story and plot. As for Rebecca De Mornay, then this was nowhere near being her best movie performances. I am sure it might have been something back in the day, since there is a heap of nudity throughout the course of the movie.

What failed to work for me was the characters in the movie, because they just never took a hold. The characters in the story were little more than just cardboard cut-outs with very little characteristics, personality and depth. Which ultimately permeated a sense of shallowness to the movie.

The storyline was not really a plausible one either. I mean, a guy who marries a woman in jail that he doesn't even know so that she can get out, just doesn't really cut it. And to top things off, then things throughout the course of the story were so predictable that you saw it coming a mile away.

"And God Created Woman" had remained to stay unseen by me for 28 years, and I can't claim to have stumbled upon a hidden gem here. I have seen it now, and can honestly say that I am not going to return to watch it a second time around.

Robin Shea (Rebecca De Mornay) escapes from a New Mexico prison. She hitches a ride with James Tiernan (Frank Langella) who is running for governor. It turns out he's visiting the prison and he tells her to sneak back in. She runs into carpenter Billy Moran (Vincent Spano) who helps her and has sex with her. She calls up Tiernan who tells her to get marry for a better chance at parole. She offers $5k to Moran to marry her. She gets parole and moves in with him who lives with his son Timmy and his brother Peter. The usual relationship struggles.

This is notable for director Roger Vadim revisiting his iconic creation. It starts like an erotic B-movie with a naked De Mornay and women's prison. Then it become awkward with an angry Billy Moran. There is so much cheese that it is irredeemably bad. Even the rock music playing is cheesy. Robin Shea is not a compelling character and I don't like their relationship. There is very little appealing about this movie.

In New Mexico, the prisoner Robin Shea (Rebecca De Mornay) has an intercourse with the simple carpenter Billy Moran (Vincent Spano) and in order to get her probation, she proposes him US$ 5,000.00 to get married with her for one year. Billy accepts, expecting to have sex with her, but she does not include this type of service in their deal. Meanwhile, she uses and is used by a powerful politician, James Tiernan (Frank Langela), who is trying to be elected the next governor of New Mexico. What a corny movie is this "And God Created the Woman"! The story is quite ridiculous and the flick is worthwhile only due to the sexy body of Rebecca De Mornay, always naked or half naked. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "E Deus Criou a Mulher" ("And God Created the Woman")

One thing I've always admired about 80's movies is that they all have that "Miami Vice look". The groundbreaking show featured hip clothing for the time as well as lots of music playing (hits or otherwise) when there was no dialogue. Today, we don't have that in films or T.V., but in the last great decade, it was everywhere. I've wondered if there ever was a true 90's movie?

And God Created Woman continues this trend. This film was made during the "hip" trend of the late 80's, when people gave up their feathered mullets and ugly tank-tops and started wearing the suits, hats, and skinny ties that were in style. The ladies would wear acid-wash jeans and what-not.

This story is a different version of the original Bardot film that made Roger Vadim a star. In this one, Rebecca De Mornay plays Robin Shea, a convict who wants to make it big as a rock 'n roll star. However, she is doing time for something and she has to wait for her parole. The story that unfolds is the kind of unbelievable pap that came out in the 50's but is set in the 80's. It's just a fairy tale. The story is too mundane to even explain, because you've seen it before.

I will say that the acting is mediocre at best. Only Vincent Spano, who plays a decent guy who ends up in cahoots with De Mornay delivers a good performance. Frank Langella sleepwalks his way through his role as a prospective candidate for the governship of New Mexico who also gets involved with De Mornay. De Mornay herself is very cute, but plays a rogue who nobody would approve of. Everyone else is just a cardboard extra. The soundtrack is decent (all movies came out with a soundtrack, it seemed). All in all, not good, but better than the crap coming out today, I guess.

Roger Vadim's remake of his own film opens with a ridiculous jail break from what appears to be a soccer mum in a mullet and tracksuit and leads to a number of other embarrassing sequences that are at least saved with an early nude scene from Rebecca DeMornay. The moment is quickly ruined by a music sequence or however else Vadim over idealises his leading lady. It turns out this scene indicates DeMornay's desire to escape from prison and pursue her realistic dream of being a famous rock and roll star. The whole experience starts getting humorous when DeMornay is sent back to prison and arranges to marry a young carpenter to beat parole on the advice of Frank Langella, a candidate running for governor of New Mexico that ran into DeMornay during her failed escape from prison. Despite the obvious predictability of the love triangle that film will pursue the film is redeemed from plenty of comedic moments thanks to the strong performances from DeMornay and a whole cast of unknown actors. It turns out irresponsible screw ups are a great source of comedy. However, plenty of embarrassing moments continue to show up in the film including a cringe worthy disrobing of some random actress who rocked up to work in granny panties and a nauseating navel gazing Langella. It is pretty depressing seeing how easily the men in this film can be led just because someone is attractive regardless what a terrible human being said person is. I think the film is meant to be a farce, it's all very light hearted with some tacky New Romantic 80s pop thrown in.