Something Wild
Margaret Colin, Jeff Daniels, Jonathan Demme, Max E. Frye, Melanie Griffith, Ray Liotta
A wildly inventive and entertaining comic nightmare from former Roger Corman prodigy Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs), this screwball odyssey is a ride to remember. Jeff Daniels plays clean-cut New York bond trader Charlie Driggs, who accepts a ride home from a strange but attractive lower-class woman named Lulu (Melanie Griffith). The sexy Louise Brooks lookalike doesn't take him home, but shanghais him for a bizarre roadtrip to Virginia that includes kinky bondage sex, destruction of property, and robbery. Things get stranger when Lulu tells Charlie that her real name is Audrey and takes him home to meet her mother, asking him to pose as her husband. The charade continues until her high-school reunion, where the roadtrip (and the entire film) takes a sharp U-turn into psycho-thriller territory. Audrey's dangerously psychotic ex-con husband, Ray Sinclair (Ray Liotta), shows up. What had been a liberating fling for Charlie turns into a bloody and vicious battle for survival. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Purchase This DVD/Video
Barnes & Noble
Product Details
| UPC: | 027616862839 |
| Release Date: | June 5, 2001 |
|---|
| Format: | DVD |
|---|
| MPAA Rating: | R |
| Region: | 1 (USA & territories, Canada) |
| Screen: |
Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV |
|---|
| Sound: |
5 full-range channels. Includes 3 for the front speakers, 2 surround channels for rear speakers, & 1 low-frequency effects (LFE) channel to carry deep bass effects, PCM mono |
| Language: |
English, Spanish; Castilian |
| Subtitles: |
French, Spanish; Castilian, English |
| Disc Aspect Ratio: | 1.85:1 |
| Genre: | Comedy Drama |
Review
Jonathan Demme's stylistic choices here hearken back to such 1930s screwball comedies as Bringing Up Baby, with a liberal dose of the danger and insanity of Martin Scorsese's After Hours. The tone of much of this film is lighter than Scorsese's, though, making the transition from comedy to thriller even more disarming when it occurs. A beautifully structured screenplay by E. Max Frye and believable performances with a dark and strangely erotic edge make this a film that really lives up to its title. The three leads all do excellent work.
Ray Liotta is nasty and menacing in his role, chasing the pair to New York and nearly kicking them both to pieces with his steel-tipped boots before meeting a gory demise. Perhaps Liotta is even a bit too menacing, as his sadistic thrashings of Daniels and Griffith threaten to throw off the balance of the film at times, but Demme eventually gets things back on track for a traditional happy ending. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Credits