A Who Done Her Movie
Having left her corporate job Elizabeth Barton (Traci Lords) has turned her attention to becoming a journalist, much to the annoyance of her husband who is left to pay the bills whilst she establishes herself. But Elizabeth finds herself under pressure from her boss Griffin (Jeff Fahey) to write a killer article for the latest edition of the magazine which will be about sex. Elizabeth's plan is to talk to a woman she chatted to on a plane who is very open about an affair she is having. But when the woman disappears Elizabeth starts snooping and comes across some surprising revelations which put her in danger.
"Extramarital" opens with a scene which immediately tells you what to expect as we watch a woman in lingerie making passionate love to a man before she plunges a knife... yes it does sound "Basic Instinct" like. And to some that won't be a surprise as actress Traci Lords made her name as a porn star, except there is no nudity in the scene and it is in fact a bad dream. But it establishes right from the word go we are in erotic thriller territory.
Now part of me wants to praise "Extramarital" because not only was it not as bad as I expected but it wasn't the complete skin flick I anticipated. In fact much of the nudity and sex scenes involved other characters with Miss Lords staying more covered than you might expect although for those who watch for Traci Lords won't be completely disappointed. But don't get me wrong as "Extramarital" is still a struggle with cheesy dialogue, cheesier characters and when it does focus on the sex it is over the top.
The surprising thing is that firstly Traci Lords delivers a reasonable, mostly straight performance and when she does restrained she is quite believable. And secondly when it comes to the thriller side of things, well whilst there is a lack of subtlety to the way it plays out at least there is mystery, thrills and danger even if the whole journalist in danger thing is one big cliche.
What this all boils down to is that on one hand "Extramarital" is not the terrible movie it might initially appear but it is by no means a good movie with a constant lack of subtlety being the movie's major sticking point. But if what you are after is a steamy, erotic thriller then it is worth finding.
