Consenting Adults (1992)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

Alan J. Pakula

Writer (WGA):

Matthew Chapman (written by)

Release Date:

16 October 1992 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife.

Plot:

Richard and Priscilla Parker's lives take a turn for the better when Eddy and Kay move into the house next door...

Plot Keywords:

Death | Husband Wife Relationship | Obsession | Baseball Bat | Framed For Murder

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Kevin Kline	...	Richard Parker
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio	...	Priscilla Parker
Kevin Spacey	...	Eddy Otis
Rebecca Miller	...	Kay Otis
Forest Whitaker	...	David Duttonville
E.G. Marshall	...	George Gordon
Kimberly McCullough	...	Lori Parker
Billie Neal	...	Annie Duttonville
Benjamin Hendrickson	...	Jimmy Schwartz
Lonnie R. Smith	...	Dr. Pettering (as Lonnie Smith)
Joe Mulherin	...	Bo
Rick Hinkle	...	Singer in Mahoney's Band
Artis Edwards Jr.	...	Atlanta Police Officer
Jerry Campbell	...	Prison Guard
Ginny Parker	...	Martha

MPAA:

Rated R for sexuality, and for violence and language.

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Canada:18A | Finland:K-16 | Germany:16 | Netherlands:16 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Company:

Hollywood Pictures

Quotes:

Eddy Otis: [Whispering to Priscilla] So Richard Parker came to my house to kill for the last time.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Ice Storm (1997)

Soundtrack:

Blues Connection

Thou shalt not covet your neighbor's wife.

Borrowing more than a little from Roald Dahl's "switch bitch", AJ Pakula shows his limits;his last movies (this one,"Pelican brief" "presumed innocent" "Devil's own" )will stand as cheapskate epitaphs ,a cardboard tombstone ,a sad and tatty end to a director extraordinaire who wiped clean and drew again the face of the political movie ("Klute " " all the presidents' men" the highly superior "the parallax view" ) a director who took Meryl Streep to peaks of emotion in "Sophie's choice" ...

"You are playing safe !you do not take any chances" Spacey complains ,and Mastrantonio repeats almost the same lines.You could have said the same about the director's work whose most "daring" idea ,as I wrote above ,was stolen from Roald Dahl.In spite of the unquestionable talent of the four leads,the movie is actually distastefully bourgeois .Kline writes horrible jingles (the one time he tries his hand at rock music is particularly awful),his daughter is a wiz kid and they live in a desirable mansion.The last picture,which is supposed to show Pakula's sense of humor ,succeeds only in proving that Pakula had no humor at all.

Take my advice and do choose Pakula's great movies of the seventies,particularly "the parallax view" ,which is,IMHO, second only to "the Manchourian candidate " ,as far as political movies are concerned.