Conference bookie::movies

949.0. "Storyville" by EVMS::HALLYB (Fish have no concept of fire) Tue Oct 03 1995 16:22

    Caught this on video recently and was pleasantly surprised.
    
    The setting: contemporary New Orleans.
    
    Young attorney Cray Fowler (James Spader) is an only child whose father
    died 3 years ago in a tragic hunting accident. Mother (Piper Laurie)
    isn't quite herself any more, so Uncle Clifford (Jason Robards) has
    taken to giving Cray advice. Which he needs a lot of, since Cray is
    running for Congress and is way behind in the polls.
    
    At a fundraiser Cray finds himself attracted to a waitress named Lee
    (Charlotte Lewis) and, well, one thing leads to another and later that
    evening they're having sex in a hot tub, not knowing Lee's father is
    busy videotaping the session. Cray's wife is cheating on him, too, as
    we soon find out.
    
    About this point you probably think well, this is just a trash movie
    with little lasting entertainment value. Not so, there is no more sex
    beyond this point. Instead, there's violence. But just a little. The
    next day Lee shows up, badly beaten by her father the videotaper, and
    Cray and Lee return to confront him. Fisticuffs ensue and our hero
    falls to the floor, unconscious. Upon awakening he sees Lee's father,
    dead, with his throat slit and a knife lying on the floor. Lee is gone.
    
    Cray takes the knife and eludes police who are just now arriving on the
    scene, having been called by a porn photographer who works nearby and
    heard a disturbance. 
    
    After sex and violence, what else but: the courtroom! Eventually Lee
    is caught and put on trial. Cray just happens to work in the public
    defender's office and takes on the case. Uncle Clifford predicts this
    will be a bold stroke to help Cray in his election bid. Lee of course
    is innocent but there's a lot of evidence against her. The trial is
    quite entertaining with a number of plot twists as various clues are
    unearthed including a strong indication that Cray's opponent might have
    had something to do with daddy's unfortunate demise a few years back.
    As Cray catches up in the polls, thanks to the case, he is given a copy
    of the videotape starring he and Lee. Will he go the Gary Hart route?
    
    The ending is nicely wrapped up with everything falling together pretty
    carefully, an obvious Family Secret is revealed and we can overlook a 
    plot hole or two and a bit of courtroom deus ex machina.
    
    Rated "R" but a pretty light "R" by current standards. Worth a rental.
    
      John