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Mercy
Detective Catherine Palmer is on the trail of an elusive serial killer. During her investigation she meets Vickie Kittrie, who belongs to an exclusive club of women who engage in secret sessions of bondage and S&M. Matters become even more complicated when Palmer finds herself attracted to Kittrie, leading to a brief lesbian encounter. Palmer soon learns that each victim belonged to this club of prominent, sexually experimental women. In order to catch the killer, Catherine must trust Vickie to guide her through the dangerous and illicit underground.
Release : | 2000 |
Rating : | 5.4 |
Studio : | Phoenician Entertainment, Franchise Pictures, Jazz Pictures, |
Crew : | Art Direction, Production Design, |
Cast : | Ellen Barkin Wendy Crewson Peta Wilson Karen Young Julian Sands |
Genre : | Drama Horror Thriller Crime Mystery |
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That was an excellent one.
Redundant and unnecessary.
Excellent, Without a doubt!!
The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.
This film is an interesting thriller that probes the after-hours private lives of well-to-do corporate women whose interests are unusual sex with other women. When some of the ladies turn up dead, the police step in, headed by Ellen Barkin as a jaded, shopworn and streetwise cop. Barken gets drawn in deeper into the erotic world she is discovering by a young woman and slowly pieces together the mysterious murders. There are red herrings and the plot twists and turns are more revealing in the film's home stretch. Barkin is as cool and wends her way through this erotic underground and the men portrayed in the film are shown in a poor light. Peta Wilson is sympathetic as the woman who guides Barkin through the maze of sex bars and clubs, and their chemistry on screen is sensual and suggestive. Barkin's trademark crooked grin is nearly absent in this picture owing to the subject matter but she is still a treat to watch. The music and cinematography are very good.
Ellen Barkin as a detective was exceptional as usual. Ellen gave one of her best performances along with Peta Wilson and Julian Sands, the doctor with many hang ups.There was a great moral in this picture, that child abuse causes great heart break and hardships for men and women that lasts their entire life time. "MERCY" presented an excellent movie about the mental hang-ups caused by family members to each other. Sexual abuse should be reported immediately no matter who the person IS in life.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS - PROCEED WITH CAUTION!If Basic Instinct were a half-way decent film, it might almost be Mercy - a sick by stylish stew of rough sex, serial murder and lesbian chic. In place of the odious and homophobic detective played by Michael Douglas, this film gives us the feisty and fabulous Ellen Barkin. As a hard-bitten homicide cop investigating the S&M killings of glamorous bisexual women, Barkin is not a sleazy and self-righteous voyeur like the Douglas character. Rather, her close emotional involvement with one of the suspects (Peta Wilson) forces her to question her own sexuality, to iron out a few of her own hidden kinks.Whether or not Barkin's character is a long-term lesbian, it's easy enough to see how she could fall for Wilson. This Australian model bears an eerie resemblance to Gwyneth Paltrow, but differs from the Oscar-laden star in two vital ways. Firstly, she has innate elegance and glamour. Secondly, she can act. (Sorry, but nothing and nobody could make me sit through Shakespeare in Love a second time!) As an unofficial 'den mother' to this coven of deeply twisted ladies, that gorgeous and golden-haired sex god Julian Sands dons mascara and a frock as Dr. Dominick Broussard - a kinky psychotherapist who dresses up in drag to seduce his lesbian patients!As you've probably gathered by now, nobody involved in the making of Mercy could ever be accused of 'good taste'. Scenes of bondage and razor-slashing in the S&M dungeons of Toronto (of all places!) are amazingly graphic for a mainstream movie. There's a sub-plot involving paedophilia, plus a deranged ex-Vietnam sniper who acts out 'pretend' murders for kicks. Perhaps it's all for the best that director Damian Harris has a quirky style akin to that of David Cronenberg - visually elegant, yet chilly and restrained. This sense of distance undercuts any hint of sleaze or sensationalism. Our involvement in the warped psychology of these characters is always stronger than our morbid curiosity about 'who is doing what to whom'.If you have a strong stomach and an interest in the 'dark side' of human sexuality - or if you're a fan of Barkin or Sands, both superb actors who have been chronically underrated and underused - then Mercy is a film you must see. If not...well, maybe you'd be happier watching Shakespeare in Love.David Melville
I have read the 28 most recent comments by various people regarding this movie and was surprised that no one mentioned the fact that the first victim, shown on the bed with the "missing eyelids", as the camera pans up and away from her face, blinks! Yes, BLINKS! I recorded it as it came on HBO this past weekend and when I saw this I literally had to replay it several times, focusing on one eye at a time to make sure that I was not seeing things! Of course, after that, it was hard to take the movie seriously although there were a few interesting and intense scenes with Julian Sands. Very disappointed and give it a 4 mostly due to the fact that the 1st victim blinks in one of the last frames as the camera pulls away from the body/face. Too bad.