Something Wild

Jonathan Demme, USA 1986, 113 minutes

Five years before bringing us the haunting, unsettling The Silence Of The Lambs, director Jonathan Demme made this slightly less sombre (yet equally unsettling in its own way) tale of love, abduction, S&M and liberation from the constraints of yuppiedom.

He also pulled off the rare feat of making the only good Melanie Griffith movie ever made. The usually-annoying, whispery-voiced Ms. Griffith brings an energy and charm to this film that she has never really recaptured. She plays Lulu, a black bob-sporting wild child who catches uptight yuppie Charlie Driggs (the ever-underrated Jeff Daniels) walking out of a diner without paying his bill. Under the pretence of driving him back to work, she then kidnaps him, drives him out to a motel and bonks him senseless.

Daniels plays the anal accountant letting his hair down with glee and gusto, after a little initial shock, and his transformation is a joy to watch. As the unlikely pair embark on a prolonged joyride that comes to an abrupt end when they arrive at her high-school reunion and run into her violent psycho boyfriend (played with outward charm and steely menace by the scary-as-hell Ray Liotta). The partially reformed Charlie must now decide where his priorities lie, whether he is committed to his new lifestyle or whether it was nothing but a fun little jaunt.

Never in danger of palling due to a witty and incisive script, colourful, sun-drenched visual style, quirky soundtrack (Talking Heads, John Cale, Laurie Anderson) and, above all, likable characters we actually care about, this bright, breezy slice of the `80s is guaranteed to put a spring in your step.

"Faultless performances from Daniels, Griffith and Liotta ensure pleasures galore" - Time Out

Review by Ben Stephens
Taken from EUFS Programme 1996-97