*Gag. *gag. It's very hard to get through this film without the previous abhorrence and actions. Supposedly an erotic "drama", I've seen bowel movements more dramatic than this excuse for soft core porn on the screen. A young Basinger and even younger Rourke headline this catastrophe as intelligent and highly paid
individuals who fall in love and have sex all over the city. Rourke has the personality of a pen, often creepily smiling while administering whatever form of S&M on Basinger, which is apparently supposed to fuel the film, but just titillates some messed up people, and makes me, as previously stated, gag. Plagued by an eighties soundtrack, a pithy script, and a series of scenes that either don't make sense, or annoy to the point of self-hatred for sitting down and watching it, 9 1/2 makes for an uncomfortable and often difficult view. Good for a gander into the Rourke of the eighties, in order to compare next to the steroids mess of the present, but otherwise, repress this like it were childhood trauma.
July 10, 2011
