Few films were greeted with as much controversy upon their release asAdrian Lyne’s9½ Weeks.Not sinceLast Tango in Parishad a serious movie about sexuality caused such a stir. But whileBernardo Bertolucci’s tale of erotic entrapment was met with acclaim andOscar nominations, Lyne’s was met with resounding jeers. Aftermonths of speculation about its production, hardly anyone seemed to like9½ Weekswhen it finally came out. Yet in an age where the most scandalizing study of sensuality imaginable isFifty Shades of Grey, Lyne’s examination of a sadomasochistic love affair retains the power to shock and disturb us. Most surprisingly of all,it turns out to be a still-potent story of how someone can get trapped in an abusive relationship — and how they can get out of it.
What Is ‘9 ½ Weeks’ About?
Kim Basingerplays Elizabeth McGraw, a SoHo art gallery employee who falls in love with Wall Street broker John Gray (Mickey Rourke). At first, John seems like the man of Elizabeth’s dreams, showering her with expensive gifts, promising to take care of her, and, best of all, satisfying her sexually. Yet gradually, he displays a darker, more abusive side. John likes to play bedroom games with Elizabeth, which become increasingly violent and dangerous. He isolates her from her friends, controls what clothes she wears, and physically assaults her during sex. Although at first she tries to set up boundaries,Elizabeth eventually becomes a willing participant, desperate to please him.
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Following the success ofFlashdance,Lyne was essentially granted a blank check to do whatever he wanted next. What he chose was an adaptation ofIngeborg Day’s semi-autobiographical novel (written under the pseudonym Elizabeth McNeill) about her own experiences in a sexually-charged, abusive relationship. One need only look at Lyne’s subsequent filmography — which includesFatal Attraction,Indecent Proposal, andUnfaithful— to understand what attracted him to Day’s book. Never one to skirt controversy, he has always been drawn to stories about what happens when the line between sex and violence becomes blurred, and how our desires can make us act out in irrational ways.9½ Weeksis his most potent and thoughtful examination of this,playing with audience expectations to show how an abuser can take control of a person’s life, first through charm, then through dominance.
‘9½ Weeks’ Subverts Romantic Movie Tropes to Examine Toxic Relationships
Before it was released,9½ Weekswent through a rigorous round of editsto appease the MPAA ratings board, which wanted to give it an adults-only NC-17 rating for its graphic sexual content. While that might make it sound like a romp, there’s a darker subtext running through the erotic acrobatics, which is that sex between John and Elizabeth is predicated on sadomasochism. That’s made apparent in the film’s most famous scene, in which John blindfolds Elizabeth and feeds her. At first, he gives her sweet treats: strawberries, jello, champagne. Then, out of nowhere, he places a raw jalapeño in her mouth, burning her lips, then drizzles her with honey as a reward. It’s a perfect encapsulation of the dynamic between them: John can be loving one minute and cruel the next, and Elizabeth must take both in equal measure.
Lyne foreshadows this in the opening scenes, where John keeps running into Elizabeth. What would normally be a “meet cute” is made to feel ominous, as it becomes clear these encounters might not be random at all, but actually a form of stalking. When Elizabeth goes to an isolated boat house with John, her survival instincts kick in, and she quickly leaves. Yet she lets him back into her life the next day after he sends her a dozen roses. Red lights keep popping up as the sexual games go from gentle to violent, but still, she stays with him, as a montage set toBryan Ferry’s “Slave to Love” shows a cycle of abuse and forgiveness forming. Before long,John is controlling every aspect of Elizabeth’s life, robbing her of her personhood and breaking her down into submission. Yet she continues to be thrilled by his games, especially one in which she dresses as a man and the two have to fight off a gang of bigots, ending in rough sex in a soaking wet alley.
What’s fascinating is that Lyne is using theconventional language of romantic moviesand love stories — a chance meeting on the street, a montage of the relationship growing, hot sex scenes in public places — to convey how Elizabeth could trap herself in what is so obviously a toxic relationship. Our understanding of movie tropes would have us believe that these scenes should be romantic. Yet because Lyne films them with the thick smoke, dark shadows, and foreboding musicmore closely associated with noir, we’re made to feel uneasy. The audience is both titillated and disturbed by what they’re experiencing, just like Elizabeth. We understand why she would be drawn to John, and ultimately, why she must break free from him.
‘9½ Weeks’ Is Better Than Its Controversy Would Suggest
Before it was even released,9½ Weekswas plagued with controversy surrounding its production, which took place in 1984. The bulk of the bad headlines were centered around the lengths Lyne went to in order to coax a performance out of Basinger,which she later said left her traumatized. To authentically capture the development of John and Elizabeth’s relationship,Lyne shot in continuity and forbade his stars from having any interactions before shooting began. The manipulation went further than that into what can almost be described as mind games, not just by the director, but by his leading man, whose behavior towards his costar often mimicked that of his character. During the shooting of one scene, Lyne reportedly asked for Rourke’s help in unnerving Basinger so that she could be appropriately broken down; Rourke is said to have gone about achieving this by grabbing his Basinger’s arm and slapping her across the face. That scene, in which John talks Elizabeth into a suicide pact and gives her what turns out to be placebos, was cut from the film because test audiences reacted so vitriolically to it.
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The mangled version that was finally released in 1986 wasa box office dud, although the uncut, uncensored home video edition was a big hit, perhaps because viewers were curious about what was deemed too steamy for theaters.Critics at the timeweren’t impressed, withJulie SalamonofThe Wall Street Journalcalling it “lovely to look at, but spiritless, a listless coquette. It brings to mind the ads for Calvin Klein’s perfume, Obsession.“Vincent CanbyofThe New York Timessimilarly likened John and Elizabeth to “those giant figures that model Calvin Klein underwear on Times Square billboards.” (Notice a trend?) Among its few defenders wasRoger Ebert, who wrote inThe Chicago Sun-Timesthat Basinger and Rourke “develop an erotic tension in this movie that is convincing, complicated and sensual.”
9½ Weeksinspired a slew of imitators, films from serious directors centered on the thin line between sex and violence. These ranged from the sublime (Paul Verhoeven’s satiricalBasic Instinct,David Cronenberg’s provocativeCrash) to the absurd (1989’sWild Orchid,starring Rourke and directed by9½ Weeksproducer and co-writerZalman King). Yet for all the issues surrounding its making,Lyne’s movie maintains its power precisely because of what Ebert described as the convincing, complicated, and sensual relationship between John and Elizabeth.In the last scene, John tries to convince Elizabeth to stay by opening up about his past, which he had previously kept hidden. She leaves, and he’s left whispering in his apartment, begging her to return. It may be the case that he actually loves her, and can never express it in a healthy way. Or it might be just another one of his games. We’ll ultimately never know, and that’s what makes9½ Weeksso endlessly intriguing.
9 1/2 Weeks
A New York art gallery assistant and a mysterious Wall Street broker enter into an intense, emotionally charged affair that pushes the boundaries of desire and control. As their relationship deepens, they explore their passions in unconventional ways, but the lines between love and obsession blur, leading to unexpected emotional consequences.
9½ Weeksis available to watch on Prime Video in the U.S.
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