Crimes of Passion

Well I certainly started off with a weird one.  We have a prostitute named China Blue (Kathleen Turner (Serial Mom, Undercover Blues)), an electronics store owner named Bobby (John Laughlin (Footloose, The Lawnmower Man)), his wife (Annie Potts (Ghostbusters, Pretty in Pink)) and a street preacher named Peter (Anthony Perkins (Psycho, Psycho IV)).  How does this all fit together?  Rather strangely.

China Blue is really this fashion designer during the day but at night she puts on a wig, a blue dress and hooks.  Her daytime boss thinks she’s up to something so he has her tailed by Bobby (who needs the extra cash).  Bobby’s having trouble at home with his wife who seems rather cold and distant.  We learn in the opening scene that their sex life is dead so Bobby decides to get his jollies off with China Blue.  They have a connection and more or less fall in love.  Now while all of this is going on Reverend Peter pops up every so often to tell China Blue that he wants to save her soul.

If that plot summery sounded confusing well it’s not that much clearer to actually watch it unfold.  The first twenty or thirty minutes are especially puzzling because there’s this one scene where China Blue is giving a guy a blowjob and he looks a lot like Bobby.  So for a long while I thought it was him and had the impression that he was a scumbag cheating on his wife.  But then when the real Bobby encounters China Blue they act like they never met before which made me go back and realize that the blowjob guy was someone else.  I mean Bobby still cheats on his wife but it’s sorta justified because he falls for China Blue.

Whatever, these characters aren’t likeable (except for one but give me a minute).  Bobby is pretty self absorbed and basically a teen in a man’s body.  He knows he has problems with his marriage but doesn’t talk to his wife about it until after he has sex with another woman.  Then when his wife tells him that she doesn’t get a lot pleasure out of sex Bobby is crushed and doesn’t want to be with her anymore.  He’d rather be with someone that he has nothing in common with except that they love fucking each other.  Since the wife didn’t come forward with all of this she also comes off as kind of an asshole.  She can see that things aren’t great between her and Bobby but doesn’t try to work it out either until it’s too late.  She’s also a little mean like she tells her five year old daughter not to eat so much because no one likes a fat girl.

China Blue actually isn’t a terrible character but we don’t learn that much about her.  Once we find out her double identity (which is fairly early on) there’s no mystery.  The question you ask yourself is why.  She’s a successful person with a good job so why does she feel the need to moonlight as a prostitute?  She tosses off quickly at one point that it’s an escape.  She feels that she has the license to do anything when she puts on her alternate identity.  That is interesting but like I said, it’s just thrown out there without delving into the issue further.  China Blue mentions to one of her John’s that she was raped by her father (very casually too) but it’s unclear if she said that as part of her act or if she really meant it.  Either way it’s fucked up because either it really happened or her client gets off on knowing that this woman was incestuously raped.

The only character that I really got into was Peter.  I guess China Blue is supposed to be kina crazy but Peter is literally insane.  Here’s how we’re introduced to him: he’s watching a naked chick dance through a peep hole with this terrified look on his face while he keeps sniffing this object in his hand (don’t think it’s drugs).  Then suddenly he runs outside, stands on his soapbox and starts preaching from the Bible to the strangers on the street.  So the setup is that he’s a total hypocrite.  Peter wishes the world was rid of prostitutes and all things sexy but at the same time he can’t help but be entranced by all of it.  He carries around a black doctor’s bag full of sex toys including a large silver dildo that I guess has blades all around it ‘cause it’s used to cut shit later.  China Blue asks him if he’s going to fuck someone to death with it and he tells her that he will if he can find the right woman.  So yeah, he’s great and Perkins plays him so well.  I never thought about it but I guess Anthony Perkins is a good actor or at least good at playing rat shit crazy lunatics.  He’s the shining spot in this movie.

The art direction, cinematography and editing is really good when it comes to China Blue’s sex apartment and the sex scenes.  The apartment’s very vibrant with hot pinks and blues but it’s also grimy as shit.  China Blue herself wears a white wig and a bright blue dress.  There are several scenes where the apartment glows from color to total darkness because there’s a neon sign right outside.  All of this is in stark contrast to the rest of the film that either takes place in bright daytime or in other muted and somewhat bland interiors.  I know you’re gonna think this sounds like bullshit but two or three times I thought to myself, “the way this thing looks and was shot reminds me of Kubrick”.  It was that good sometimes. 

So the crimes of passion that occur in this movie are both real and emotional.  The real ones are prostitution and…well…other crimes happen at the end.  The emotional ones are Bobby cheating on his wife and the two of them not working shit out and coming clean about their feelings.  Peter thinks it’s a crime to have the thoughts and feelings that he does.  Of course it isn’t and I guess it’s supposed to be ironic that the only way he sees to correct his problem is to commit an actual crime.

It’s hard to make heads or tails of this one.  Some scenes are beautifully done, especially the sex scenes, and Perkins gives a great performance.  On the other hand the story is told in such a roundabout way that it takes a while to figure things out.  And sometimes that’s good but in this case I think the film would’ve benefited if it had rolled out the plot in a simpler way.  There’s a nod to Psycho which makes things even stranger.  I wonder if that was in the script originally or if it was added once Perkins got on board.  Anyway this one’s certainly light on thrills as not much happens until the very end but there’s some sex and a ton of dirty talk.  If you’re a fan of Ken Russell (Altered States, Tommy) then you’ll probably find this interesting.  I’m not personally so it was a mixed bag for me.   

Sex Scenes: Three.  There’s a scene where we think China Blue is getting raped but it turns out that it’s just this one guy’s fantasy (that’s the same rape guy I mentioned earlier).  I didn’t count it because we don’t know that it’s not rape until afterwards.  There’s also a pretty funny scene where this rich couple hires China Blue for a threesome in a limo but as they feel her up and kiss her they constantly talk about business ‘n shit.  China Blue can’t take it and runs out of the limo.  This scene doesn’t fit with the rest of the movie because it’s a total comedy sketch.  And lastly I want to mention that the sex scene with the cop is really awesome.  It’s done very well and edited perfectly to the Rick Wakeman (of Yes fame) soundtrack.

After Sex Scenes: One.  If you want to count the one after the fake out rape then there are two.

Strange Cameos: Stephen Lee has maybe one line in this and he’s done a ton of TV work but I know him from Robocop 2.  He played a dirty cop working for Cain that eventually gets his chest sliced open while Cain forces Hob (the little gangster kid) to watch.  Does anyone else here fucking love Robocop 2?  I think it’s almost as good as the first.