Review: Jade (1995)

People in the Movie: David Caruso, Chazz Palminteri, Linda Fiorentino

Director: William Friedkin

Pigeonhole: Erotic Thriller / Mystery / Suspense

The Basics: A San Francisco Assistant District Attorney named David Corelli (Caruso) catches a murder case involving a rich, politically connected businessman named Kyle Medford who was killed in his home.  The investigation uncovers a blackmail scheme involving friends of Corelli, as well as the highest office holder in the state of California.  The search for the truth leads to more secrets, a car chase through the streets of San Francisco, sex, and murder.   

Recommendation: If you like the thriller-mystery type movie, and you are familiar with the noted actors, then you will like Jade, it is an entertaining film in my opinion.  ‘R’ rating is for violence, sexuality, and language.  There is also an unrated version with more sex and on-screen gore.

My Take: There is a lot of negativity out there about this film, which in my opinion is not so much about the final product, but more about “failed expectations”.  This was a big budget film; the 3 lead actors were all marketable names; the supporting cast included Richard Crenna, Michael Biehn, Kevin Tighe, and Victor Wong (all successful seasoned actors); the director was a well-respected, award-winning vet; and the screenplay writer Joe Eszterhas had recent box office success in the same erotic thriller/ mystery genre, specifically with Basic Instinct and Sliver.  So all the elements seemed to be in place for this to be a huge success, and yet, it fizzled.  Many fingers were pointed at Caruso’s acting, which, to me, is absurd because he is essentially playing the exact same character he plays on CSI: Miami.  There was nothing “off” about his performance.  However, there are some items I will discuss which – along with these heightened expectations – could have led to the backlash.

**spoiler alert** The investigation leads Corelli and the police to discover that Medford was facilitating a high-end sex ring for rich people, but unbeknownst to his clients he was video-taping these liaisons (which were taking place at his beach house), and which he later intended to use as blackmail.  One of the men Corelli sees in some of Medford’s blackmail photos is the Governor of California, Lew Edwards (Richard Crenna).  This now makes the murder investigation politically charged, as the governor cannot be “mixed up in this”, and his aides work against the investigation.  The case also takes a personal turn as a discovered video tape shows a former lover of Corelli’s, Trina Gavin (Fiorentino), having sex with a man - not her husband.  Her husband, Matt Gavin (Palminteri), happens to be Corelli’s best friend, further complicating things.

As the story moves along, someone attempts to kill Corelli by cutting his brake line, and in San Francisco, you can imagine how dangerous that would be.  Several witnesses are questioned, but then 2 of them are killed, and pretty gruesomely I might add.  The investigation clues seem to point to one mysterious woman involved in the sex ring, who is known only as Jade.  She seems likely to be the killer - mostly by default since she is the only person not known or dead, yet.  When the reveal is made, and the movie is over, there was no big surprise.  All in all, still an enjoyable ride that does have pretty good tension at moments and in my opinion is way above the negative wrap that is out there about it.

So what were the problems?

- Even if you were not trying “to figure it out”, the killer is revealed fairly early.

- Corelli did more “street level” investigating than an ADA would have.  He was more like a detective/inspector, than an attorney… I have wondered about this, if he was supposed to originally be cop versus an ADA.

- It did not seem like Linda Fiorentino’s character was developed the way it should have been.  She is a Clinical Psychologist (which was an interesting element), but she is also Jade.  She was clearly not remorseful about having wild sex with many other men, and she even possibly knew Medford was making the recordings and continued with her encounters, but there was nothing as to “why” she was leading this double life, other than a brief mention of Matt cheating on her in the past.  So there was not enough development of the title character, which did not make much sense.    

- The theatrical cut truly seems like are “things” missing – like you walked into a movie 5 minutes late.  The ‘unrated’ version plugs up several plot holes which were not otherwise explained in the theatrical version, and even in the extended version, there were still some items left hanging (e.g. who actually killed the witnesses, and who cut Corelli's brake line).  I honestly felt like there could have been another hour of footage added that could brought everything in the movie full circle, as well as hiding the killer just a little better.

Final Thoughts/ Extras/ For Fun: Joe Eszterhas later noted that William Friedkin made so many changes to the story that he did not even want his name attached to the movie.  That makes me wonder how the story may have played out differently if the director would have stuck to the “original story”…