Basic Instinct 2 review

In a climate where even a middling hit is exploited for at least one sequel, quite why it has taken 14 years to follow up the sensational original is as much a mystery as anything the film's seductive crime novelist Catherine Tramell has ever been involved in. The majority of delays centered on the problem of finding a suitable male lead to play opposite Sharon Stone. A long list, which included Harrison Ford, Robert Downey Jr., Pierce Brosnan and Benicio Del Toro, was worked through before the less illustrious David Morrissey was finally approved.

In the intervening period, the notorious leg-crossing scene has insured Basic Instinct has endured in the public consciousness longer than its merits warranted. Michael Caton-Jones, who also won out the protracted game of directorial musical chairs, was wise enough to recognize Basic Instinct 2's primary draw and exploits it for all it's worth. At 47 (she's since had her 48th birthday), Stone is still sizzlingly sexy, even it's patently cosmetically enhanced. The more mature sophistication she lends the role adds a different dimension.

The ultra slick look of Stone's Tramell is a theme Caton-Jones and his cinematographer Gyula Pados and production designer Norman Garwood, have extended to the rest of the film. The obvious phallic symbolism of the Gherkin building features heavily, while the lustrous sets are bathed in a noirish light and the grey flatness of a London sky.

Trying to recapture the primal attraction that existed between Tramell and Michael Douglas's Detective Curran was key and in the brooding intensity of Morrissey's psychoanalyst Dr Michael Glass, this has been achieved. Glass is brought in by the gritty Detective Roy Washburn (David Thewlis) to evaluate Tramell who is suspected of murder after the car she was driving plunged to the bottom of the Thames with a famous footballer trapped inside. Tramell's callous attitude and lack of remorse inflame Washburn who is determined to implicate the conceited and inflammatory writer.

Glass is immediately struck by Tramell's potent intellect, her "risk addiction" tendencies and general sense of "omnipotence." Those elements, along with her other more flagrantly displayed attributes, begin to captivate Glass who crosses his once revered professional boundaries as he becomes ensnared in Tramell's psychological web. As the murder count grows so does Glass' implication while Tramell saunters around wearing a smug grin, a series of revealing outfits and sometimes even less.

For those who were happy enough to sit through a mediocre thriller buoyed by the promise of a fleeting second of titillation, this sequel will no doubt satisfy. For those looking for something more substantial, your naiveté is endearing.

Kevin Murphy