Film Review: And God Created Woman (1988)
One of the most annoying Hollywood practices is ruining other countries’ cinema classics with uninspired, needless and poorly imagined remakes, with French cinema being among the most common victims. Some of the original film authors contributed to it, like French director Roger Vadim. He provided another such example with 1988 drama And Good Created Woman, Hollywood remake of his eponymous 1956 film, famous for turning his wife and muse Brigitte Bardot into international star and pushing the limits of screen erotica in world cinema.
New version is set in US state of New Mexico and begins when the protagonist, female convict Robin Shea (played by Rebecca De Mornay), escapes from prison. She successfully hitch-hikes a limo on the road, unaware that its occupant happens to be James Tiernan (played by Frank Langella), liberal Democrat politician who is running for state governor on the prison reform platform and, as part of campaign, travels to the very institution Robin has escaped from. He is quite charmed by Robin and suggests that she try sneaking back into prison before anyone notices her escape and try to win her freedom through parole hearing. She could increase her chances with parole board if she gets married beforehand. While going back into prison, she stumbles into Billy Moran (played by Vincent Spano), carpenter hired to repair parts of the facility. This results in bout of very passionate sex that leaves great impression on Billy. When Robin later suggests that two of them get married in exchange for her inheritance money, Billy is quite enthusiastic about the scheme. It works, the pair get married and six months later Robin is released. Both spouses, however, are unpleasantly surprised with some aspects of marriage; Robin learns that Billy lives with Timmy (played by Jimmy McEnnan) son from previous marriage and a brother Peter (played by Donovan Leitch); Billy learns that Robin considers the marriage a business arrangement and doesn’t want it consummated. She instead try to pursue career of a rock musician in Peter’s band. She is also romantically pursued by Tiernan and has sex with him, until the affair begins to jeopardise politician’s campaign. Although both spouses see other people, they gradually discover that they are actually romantically attracted to each other.
Many critics considered this film to be quite loose remake of 1956 version and claimed that the two films had very few things in common. Those claims are valid and two versions of And God Created Woman only share certain plot elements – like an older “sugar daddy” gentleman sponsoring the young woman and marriage of convenience that transforms into marriage of love. The setting is, however, quite different and the protagonist is somewhat older, more experienced and a shrewd operator than teenage force of wild nature in the first film. Rebecca De Mornay plays her role well, also willing to disrobe in front of camera and take part in sex scenes, with Vadim obviously using laxer censorship standards to indulge in more explicit erotica than it could have in 1950s. Vadim also used Robin, character rebellious self-reliant woman who confidently and unapologetically uses sexuality to get ahead, as some sort of attack against neo-puritanical trends of Reagan’s America. He also wore his political preference on his sleeve, by having Robin’s mentor and saviour portrayed as enlightened member of Democratic Party. Although veteran character actor Frank Langella also plays the role well, Vadim’s message is compromised by poor script that inexplicably transforms him into cynical and ruthless politician only for film to get some drama in the second part. Vincent Spano is quite adequate in the role, although it is his good looks rather than chemistry with De Mornay that makes relationship between the characters believable. Vadim’s direction varies in quality from scene to scene, with some sex scenes ruined through poor editing. But the most disappointing is subplot about Robin’s music career that looks like self-parody due to the extensive use of the most annoying cliches and the actual quality of music is such that would make film barely interesting to anyone except to those most nostalgic towards 1980s. Although DeMornay later had interesting career, her bid to become 1980s version of Brigitte Bardot ultimately failed.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/61651-and-god-created-woman
Critic: AA