Jade (1995) Paramount/Suspense-Thriller RT: 107 minutes (Director’s Cut) Rated R (strong sexual content, nudity, violence, bloody images, language) Director: William Friedkin Screenplay: Joe Eszterhas Music: James Horner Cinematography: Andrzej Bartkowiak Release date: October 13, 1995 (US) Cast: David Caruso, Linda Fiorentino, Chazz Palminteri, Richard Crenna, Michael Biehn, Donna Murphy, Ken King, Holt McCallany, David Hunt, Angie Everhart, Kevin Tighe, Victor Wong, Robin Thomas, Jay Jacobus, Victoria Smith, Darryl Chan. Box Office: $9.8M (US)
Rating: ***
With the sexual thriller Jade, I’m once again faced with a bad movie that’s gotten better with age. It’s a mess from start to finish with its muddled plot, poor acting and complete lack of coherence. This is especially disappointing when you consider the people behind it. It’s co-produced by Robert Evans (The Godfather, Chinatown), written by Joe Eszterhas (Basic Instinct, Showgirls) and directed by William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist and To Live and Die in L.A.). What in the hell went wrong? Pretty much everything you can think of. It’s a bad movie and yet I like it. Why? You know why; because bad movies from back then are better than a lot of today’s mediocre ones. That’s my take anyway.
I saw Jade at a prerelease screening in Oct. ’95. Although it hadn’t yet opened to the public, the word was already out that it was a stinker. I’m shocked the studio still decided to screen it for audiences and critics. The only part I liked was the car chase through San Francisco. Friedkin knows how to effectively stage one of those. It doesn’t quite measure up to the ones in The French Connection or To Live and Die in L.A., but it livens up an otherwise limp suspense-thriller.
What I didn’t know at the time was Jade was severely cut by the studio in order to avoid an NC-17. In all, they cut 15 minutes including the more sexually explicit material. Eszterhas must have been used to this by now. I found all this out when I saw the longer Director’s Cut on cable in ’97. Although still not a good movie, it’s the better of the two versions. It not only includes all the excised sexual scenes, it has additional scenes that clarify the story a little more. It also has a slightly different ending. This version wasn’t available on DVD or Blu-Ray until recently. Well, it’s about time!
David Caruso (NYPD Blue) stars as David Corelli, a San Francisco ADA investigating the bloody murder of a prominent businessman. It’s not your ordinary crime scene. The victim, an art collector, was killed with a ceremonial axe. Also, he was found wearing a fertility mask (masks, a recurring motif). Yeah, this one’s pretty f***ed up.
Corelli comes to find out it’s connected to a mysterious prostitute named Jade. She’s a kinky one, this Jade. She’ll do anything her clients desire. She’s part of a blackmail scheme that the deceased was running. He would tape her having sex with rich, powerful men at his beach house then threaten to expose their deeds unless they pay him off. Among them is the governor (Crenna, First Blood), a corrupt creep who will do anything to keep the public from finding out about his sexual proclivities. Nobody seems to know who Jade is, not that it matters since somebody starts killing off anybody who might possibly know her identity.
The primary suspect in the murder is Trina Gavin (Fiorentino, The Last Seduction), a clinical psychologist and former lover of Corelli’s. Her fingerprints were found on the weapon. What we’re looking at here is a textbook case of conflict of interest. In addition to their past relationship, Trina is (unhappily) married to Corelli’s best friend, sleazebag defense lawyer Matt Gavin (Palminteri, A Bronx Tale). When questioned, she has an answer for everything. She’s as cool as a cucumber. Her husband, not so much. He’s offended that Corelli would suspect her for such a heinous crime.
Meanwhile, somebody wants Corelli off the case. At one point, he nearly buys the farm after the brakes on his car are cut. His boss (Tighe, Road House), who doesn’t like him very much, tries to order him off the case to avail. No, Corelli is going to see this through no matter what. He’s determined to find the killer before he/she strikes again.
Jade is just one of the many erotic thrillers that came along in the wake of the success of Basic Instinct. It joins such illustrious titles as Body of Evidence (1993), Sliver (1993) and Color of Night (1994). It ended up being a career ender for Eszterhas who, up until this point, was being paid millions of dollars for his scripts. He reportedly received $2.5M for Jade. After it and Showgirls bombed (within a month of each other), he was no longer in demand. Only two more of his screenplays- Telling Lies in America and An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn, both 1997- got made into movies before his luck ran completely out.
Although Friedkin cites Jade as his favorite of all the films he made (SAY WHAT?!), it’s not exactly a feather in his cap. He did what he could with it, even rewriting most of the script, a point of contention between him and Eszterhas. It still turned out to be an incomprehensible mess with more red herrings than a literary fish market. The pacing is wonky and style definitely outweighs substance. It has a great car chase though. After a potential witness is killed in a hit and run, Corelli goes after the unseen driver in his car. They speed up and down the hills of San Francisco before hitting something of a roadblock, a parade in Chinatown. It slows down both drivers as they attempt to navigate their way through floats and throngs of people. It finally ends with one of the cars going into the bay. BTW, we never find out who’s driving the other car.
Between NYPD Blue and CSI: Miami, Caruso tried to be a movie star. He had acted in feature films before- most notably, An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), First Blood (1982), King of New York (1990), Hudson Hawk (1991) and Mad Dog and Glory (1993)- but he never played the lead. He left NYPD Blue in its second season to pursue success on the big screen. He starred in two films in ’95, Kiss of Death and Jade, neither of which was well received. He floundered for a few years before finding success on TV again with CSI: Miami. His performance in Jade is both flat and laughable. Not once does he project authority or personality. He doesn’t command the movie; he lets the convoluted plot guide him along to destination unknown.
Palminteri, a fairly ubiquitous actor in the mid 90s with roles in Bullets Over Broadway (1994), The Usual Suspects (1995), Diabolique (1996), Faithful (1996) and Mulholland Falls (1996), nibbles at the scenery playing a caricature combo, sleazy defense attorney and possessive husband. It’s not one of his better performances. He appears to be on autopilot playing a character that may as well have a big flashing neon sign above his head reading “GUILTY!” Of what, I won’t say. That Palminteri isn’t given much to do in the film is a big red flag. He never makes any attempt to hide his character’s true vile (and violent) nature.
Fiorentino is the only intriguing character in Jade even though she’s basically playing the same character as Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. Trina is a well-respected figure in her field, but she has a dark kinky side that she hides from the world, Matt in particular. Her extracurricular activities stem from her unhappy marriage to a controlling husband. She cries when she has sex with him. She only finds fulfillment in her secret life where she’s the dominant. In the role, Fiorentino does a good job. She’s naturally talented and seductive. The only thing she can’t do is generate any chemistry with either of the male leads.
The cast also includes Michael Biehn (The Terminator) and Donna Murphy (Star Trek: Insurrection) as detectives on the case, Holt McCallany (Blue Bloods) as the governor’s aide and model Angie Everhart (Bordello of Blood) as a prostitute who might have valuable information. It’s not too bad of a supporting cast.
James Horner’s score for Jade is half-assed and forgettable. He reportedly didn’t really want to do it, but went ahead at Friedkin’s insistence (and a $3M paycheck). His lack of interest shows. What stands out instead is the haunting “The Mystic’s Dream” by Celtic fusion singer Loreena McKennitt. It’s used to great effect.
Jade is almost as laughable as Showgirls. It’s often unintentionally funny with its dopey dialogue and nonsensical storyline mixing sex, power, political corruption, murder and some BS about “hysterical blindness”. It really drops the ball when it comes to the big reveal- i.e. the identity of the killer. Friedkin treats it as an afterthought. After the obligatory false ending, a certain character just comes out and admits it. Big deal. Who didn’t see it coming anyway? Jade is absolutely bad, but it’s the fun kind of bad, the kind where you roll your eyes and chuckle as it goes through the motions as a sexy suspense-thriller. I like it.
