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Common Sense Note

Parents need to know that this film is about a murderer who kills people with an ice pick. There are many scenes involving full female nudity and male-female intercourse. The main characters drink heavily and use cocaine, and the male protagonist sexually assaults a main female character.

While not recommended for family viewing, parents who choose to watch this with their teens could talk about the choices that Detective Curran makes in the film. How might his drinking and drug use have influenced his decision-making? Families might also discuss Detective Curran's relationship with Dr. Garner. Did he treat her fairly? Was she right to risk her job for him? Parents could also talk about the depiction of Catherine Trammell. Do you think she "did it"? Do you think she cared about the detective or was just manipulating him?

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Common Sense Review

Reviewed By: Hollis Griffin

This over-the-top murder mystery features a bisexual blonde bombshell that may or may not be murdering people with an ice pick. Sharon Stone plays author Catherine Trammell with exuberance, adding a layer of irony to the stereotypical femme fatale role. Her foil, San Francisco police detective Nick Curran, is enchanted with her and starts drinking, smoking, and snorting cocaine as he copes with his feelings for a woman who is likely a murderess. This familiar scenario -- poor put-upon cop and his deadly, beautiful seducer -- is played to the hilt here. BASIC INSTINCT is nothing if not a hardboiled mystery movie taken through the roof with more sex, drugs, and bloody stabbings than are appropriate for younger viewers (or even many older viewers, for that matter).

BASIC INSTINCT suffers from an overuse of these stereotypes. The film's treatment of female characters become (more) offensive when the detective manipulates, beats, and degrades Dr. Garner. This female character is devoted to him and risks her well-being to protect him from an overzealous police commission, even as Nick humiliates her at work and in the bedroom. Catherine Trammell's lesbian relationship is mostly ignored in favor of depicting her bedroom romps with the detective. Nevertheless, it's hard to overlook the film's use of the murderous lesbian stereotype because Catherine and her girlfriend are murder suspects throughout.

The plot is twisty and turny enough to make BASIC INSTINCT a compelling enough movie. Yet the film's reliance on sex and violence clutters it. It also makes it rather inappropriate for anyone other than older, mature viewers.

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