This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

From my favorite movies..

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

In Oregon, the wealthy Andrew Marsh dies of a heart attack with evidence of a cocaine-filled sex game. D.A. Robert Garrett (Joe Mantegna) investigates. Marsh's secretary Joanne Braslow (Anne Archer) immediately points the finger at his girlfriend Rebecca Carlson (Madonna). Lawyer Frank Dulaney (Willem Dafoe) takes her case. She is arrested for murder with the motive that all of his $8 million estate is left to her. Despite being married to Sharon (Julianne Moore) with a son, Frank starts an affair with Rebecca.Madonna is annoying. She is meant to be a femme fatale. She can't be annoying. She's definitely not sexy. She's the main flaw in this movie. Willem Dafoe overacts. He gets Joanne's accusation and goes off the deep end immediately. He's not the only one as this movie seems intent on overplaying every scene. Madonna is essentially playing the same role as Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. The difference is that Stone is a much better actress in a movie that is more skillfully made. I'm not offended but I am bored. The courtroom is horribly paced. Madonna is even bad at flirting and the sex is cheesy bad.

Hei, I gave 6 because the script was not that great, as a thriller it could have had a better suspense. But the acting work and directing was on the level. There is nothing wrong with Madonnas acting in this film. And she looks great too. It is a typical "erotic thriller" and not of the worst kind at all. It is just an average representative of the genre and as such, on a stronger side. The script has large plot holes like most erotic thrillers but most of the people watch it to see Madonna and men watch it for Madonna getting her clothes off, isn't it. I think Madonna and her lawyer had a good on-screen chemistry and it was a fully valid chill-out film to watch. This review is written by a heterosexual woman. I do not fancy Madonna, but I like her persona and her acting and I think she was good in this film.

Those three words seem to run through most of the reviews for this title, yet still it maintains its very low 4.1 average rating. It's probably one of the best of the exploitative, sleazy erotic thrillers of the 90's. That's not high praise, but it also places it quite far away from the worst films ever made.The weakest link in the film - and maybe the one responsible for much of its bad reputation is Madonna. Having tried her might at several mediocre comedies, Madonna chose this thriller as her first serious role, and she doesn't quite make it. Her acting isn't quite horrible - but she's clearly trying to channel the femme fatales of the classic Film Noirs, and placing herself in the same category as the likes of Barbara Stanwyck, Marlene Dietrich and Kim Novak, she's nowhere near good enough. It's also not as good as her previous femme fatale role on Dick Tracy, which was just self-aware and campy enough to work. But Body of Evidence takes itself too seriously for Madonna's performance to pass. Surprisingly, she isn't even good enough at being sensual and seductive, making the sexual scenes quite awkward (as lovely as it is to see so much of Madonna's skin, that is).But surprisingly, most of the other scenes work quite well. Willem Dafoe and Joe Mantegna are good enough as the rival lawyers to make the courtroom scenes very effective, and as a courtroom drama alone (paying as little mind as possible to Madonna's scenes) it's well written, well acted and quite entertaining. Julianne Moore is good in her few short scenes as Dafoe's wife, and much of the supporting cast is also solid. All of these make it an entertaining enough thriller, filled to the brim with clichés but still managing to hold a little punch at the end. It's by no means a great film but it's also not that bad.

I read someone compare this to a bad episode of Law & Order and that about sums up my feelings on this movie. The erotic relationship between Willem Dafoe and Madonna is completely unwarranted, and the way their relationship develops is kind of unbelievable and cheap. The plot-line is weak and the revolving mystery is more so; however, it is clear that the film attempts to achieve much more than engross one in an underwhelming plot. At its core Body of Evidence is a late night soft-core porn mystery/drama. Juliane Moore's portrayal of Sharon Dulaney was the only mildly provocative aspect of the film. The storyline is incidental to a mildly pornographic coupling of two mildly unattractive people.The acting is sub-par and Madonna musters what she can to pull off...well... herself - the only role she ever plays in films. An argument could be made that the film's cinematography was its only redeeming quality. Debuting at the height of Madonna's Erotica period, I don't doubt why she decided to make this film, but I do doubt why the director, the actors, the producers, and everyone else involved thought this would be a good film to make. It serves as little more than a promo for this particular period of Madonna's career.