9 1/2 Weeks

I'm waiting . . .

9 1/2 Weeks is an awfully long time for a woman to decide that she's dating a monster. I suppose it's harder to come to that conclusion when the monster is disguised as Mickey Rourke. He and the soundtrack throw out constant clues that he will be responsible for her kidnapping or implication in some bizarre crime, but that's beyond the creativity of this story. At the very least, I expected his jealousy to unhinge him. 9 1/2 Weeks is less a story and more a collection of vignettes that aren't nearly as sexy as I expected. Most disappointing, the often-imitated kitchen scene is already done as comedy, making the comparatively serious treatment in Hot Shots look like the real thing instead of a parody. Although this movie may have seemed edgy and sexy at the time, it does very little now, and surrounds what it does do with interminable waiting for the inevitable emotional breakdown.