Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 28, 1990 TAG: 9004280343
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS GLADDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The character he plays is named Wheeler, and he's a mysterious real estate tycoon living in Rio de Janeiro. However, as a hobby Wheeler solves the sexual problems of other people. Unfortunately, Wheeler has hang-ups that run so deep he can't remedy his own.
Well, at least not for a while, at any rate.
It's no secret that "Wild Orchid" was rated X because of steamy scenes between Rourke and Carre Otis. It has been cut to an R but remains primarily a weirdly silly soft-core outing - a glossier version of the type that shows up on late-night pay cable.
Otis plays Emily Reed, a multi-lingual lawyer who tells her potential employers that she has spent so much time preparing to travel that she hasn't a chance to leave the Midwest. She's immediately hired and sent to Brazil the next day with a foul-mouthed company executive named Claudia (Jacqueline Bisset) to clinch a land deal.
If director Zalman King didn't show us so many Brazilian landmarks we might guess that Carre hopped on the wrong plane and landed in Haiti because of her zombie-like line delivery.
She seems kind of dim for someone who practices international law, though the movie strives mightily to depict her as an innocent whose sexuality is awakened in Brazil. Actually her sexuality wasn't in a deep slumber, it was only napping. Though Carre protests at some of the erotic situations in which she finds herself, she does so without much conviction. Before the movie ends, she indulges in two acts of voyeurism, takes a stranger who thinks she's a hooker to bed and almost becomes involved in a threesome with Bisset and a beach boy. Wheeler, who has fallen in love with Carre, encourages all of this and then decides that she's not pure enough for him.
Rourke may hold the record for a mainstream actor in X-rated movies - this, "Angel Heart" and "9 1/2 Weeks" all cut to an R. Maybe he writes X-rated scenes into his contract - a star's perks that go with the air-conditioned dressing room.
Here, he gives the usual Rourke performance, smirking and whispering and looking off into space to indicate his character's complexity. But the old Rourke smirk doesn't look right surrounded by a tan and a clean shave. It's a performance as off-kilter as the whole movie.
This brings us to confession time. "Wild Orchid" is so pretentious and off-the-wall that it turns out to be an entertaining bad movie. The unintentionally funny dialogue begs for hoots as do some of the more preposterous scenes. King produced "Siesta" and "9 1/2 Weeks" and directed "Two Moon Junction." All had kinky aspects that he borrows for this movie. Like Basinger in "9 1/2 Weeks," Bisset puts on a man's suit and a fake mustache. Scenes like that make armchair psychoanalysis of the filmmaker an inevitable diversion when the movie isn't bad enough to ward off boredom. But so bizarre and ludicrous is it that such moments are infrequent. `Wild Orchid' A Vision release at Tanglewood Mall Cinema (989-6165). Rated R for nudity and strong sexual content. Two hours long.
by CNB