Compromising Positions *** (1985, Susan Sarandon, Raul Julia, Edward Herrmann) – Classic Movie Review 10,977

Director Frank Perry’s 1985 Compromising Positions is written by Susan Isaacs and based on her novel, and has a special cast in Susan Sarandon, Raul Julia, Edward Herrmann, Judith Ivey, Mary Beth Hurt and Joe Mantegna. This unusual mystery thriller compensates for its lack of thrills with sly w it and fleshed-out, likeable characters.

Dr Fleckstein (Joe Mantegna), a sleazy womanising dentist serving the upscale New York suburb of Shorehaven is murdered in his office one night because of his quirky habit of seducing his female patients and photographing them in compromising positions.

Compromising Positions is lifted by excellent playing from Sarandon as Judith Singer, the mother-journalist drawn into investigating the murder because several of her friends were compromised by the dentist, and Julia as David Suarez, the cop she becomes emotionally involved with.

Herrmann and Ivey score too as Sarandon’s chauvinist law firm attorney husband Bob Singer and her bitchy buddy Nancy Miller. Also in the cast are Anne De Salvo, Josh Mostel, Deborah Rush and Joan Allen.

Sarandon was pregnant during filming and wears loose-fitting clothes, which also fit her character as a former investigative journalist turned suburban stay-at-home mom.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,977

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