Consenting Adults (1992)

The film stars sexy Kevin Kline and Kevin Spacey, both married and recently becoming next door neighbors. Kevin Kine is supposedly in a happy relationship with his wife (played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, but all hell breaks loose when Kevin Spacey's character sets his new friend up for the murder of his wife so he can collect on a heft insurance policy. Does the criminal justice system in America really let a man who is about to stand trial for a brutal murder out on bail? Do they then let him wander, unsupervised, wherever he pleases? This movie started out great the way it established the growing friendship between two very different couples and then moved into a murder mystery. The acting was first-rate (with the exception of Rebecca Miller can we say boring?) but then the plot defied logic. Further, it is completely unrealistic that a shattered Kevin Kline's wife would have so immediately taken up with Kevin Spacey. By the time the film ended, it felt like a comedy, it was so ridiculous! Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

Richard and Priscilla Parker are a happily married couple. He works writing jingles for different products, as we meet him. Priscilla, who is also seen while he works at a recording studio, appears to be the one that handles the financial aspect. They have a teen aged daughter who is attending a boarding school. Their home is set in a well to do division in the suburb of Atlanta. They seem to have it all.Little do they know their life is about to change drastically when their new neighbors buy the house next to them. Eddy and Kay Otis are an attractive couple about the same age as the Parkers, but with no children. Eddy shows all the signs of being a fast operator. Kay, on the other hand, is the quiet one. Eddy is a glib man that gives the impression of being a con man, if there were ever one. The new arrivals latch on to the Parkers, as they become friends.Richard and Priscilla's marriage has seen better days. He works at home late into the night. Richard cannot help but to notice the beautiful Kay next door preparing for bed, or getting out of the bathtub with nothing on. He begins acting like a peeping tom. Eddy pulls a fast one when he is hit by Richard's car. He offers the settlement check to his friends, who at first, are reluctant to do so. The Parkers begin having second thoughts about their neighbors.One day, out of the blue, Eddy has an interesting proposal for Richard. How about switching wives, but not in the obvious way. Eddy wants to be subtle about it. One night, Richard, who cannot resist spending some time in the sack with Kay, comes down during the night. He is to go to the Otises, where Kay will be sleeping, have sex with her, and just return back home. Eddy is expected to do the same with Priscilla. Wrong decision, indeed. When Kay is found dead, all suspicions fall on Richard, the last one to have sex with her. But was that so? Richard's life goes into a tail spin as he tries to prove his innocence, only to get a lot of complications along the way."Consenting Adults" came almost at the end of Mr. Pakula's life. He met a horrible death. As a film director, Mr. Pakula enjoyed a good career in Hollywood, and even if this film was flawed, he showed he was the man that got good performances from actors that worked for him. As written by Matthew Chapman, the film holds a good promise up until the Kay's horrible death. After that, the film does not make much sense the way it was written, which leaves a lot of questions in the viewer's mind. Best thing in the film is Kevin Spacey at his weirdest. He is the most interesting character that contrasts with the more reserved Kevin Kline, whose Richard shows a high libido gone wrong, while Spacey's Eddy is a cunning evil man that has an ulterior motive to capitalize on Kay's murder. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Rebecca Miller, who is also a good director, play second fiddles to their high profiled husbands.

Any number of Hollywood presentations stretch their plots to allow scenes that add thrills and give the actors a chance to "emote". CA takes this to another level, creating a universe where people do things for no particular reason except to keep the engine chugging along, pulling its strange cargo toward a requisite splashy finale. Along the way the movie becomes much like a creature that has passed through the transformation pods in "The Fly". You can kind of tell what was intended but the actual result is anything but pretty. Accompanying these oddities is the absolute stupidity required of the characters. At one point the lead, accused of one murder, discovers potential exculpatory evidence which he shares with an insurance investigator. This could save the insurance company 1.6 million dollars. The logical thing to do, of course, would be for the investigator, with the help of the police, to check this out saving the insurance company their money and eliminating the murder charge for the lead. But does the investigator follow it up? Well, that would be expecting these people to have high level thinking. High level in this case means what any reasonable person might think about. Since the characters in CA tend to have the thinking processes of turnips the lead follows up himself, resulting in yet another murder on his hands. However that does allow the requisite finale which is completed with the panache of a 5th grade play. The acting is fine, but plot holes and poor direction particularly of action sequences ruined the film.

This is one of my most conflicted films of all time. The first act is strong(mainly thanks to Spacey). There are some nice nuanced interactions between the characters as they are getting to know each other. The second act is OK, but begins to raise credibility problems. The third act is wholly predictable and improbable. But Spacey is so good in Act 1 that he warrants multiple viewings. I think Act 1 is one of his best roles. MEM has some good early moments too, although she becomes a tool of the plot later on. Kline is probably as credible at being a sucker as one could expect. As for Miller, statuesque blondes with perfect features probably should not sing the blues with lines like: "Don't put no headstone on my grave."