Consenting Adults
Consenting Adults
R | 16 October 1992 (USA)
Consenting Adults Trailers

Richard and Priscilla Parker are an ordinary suburban couple whose lives are invaded and rocked by their hedonistic, secretive new neighbors, Eddy and Kay Otis.

Reviews
Hellen

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

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KnotStronger

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

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Jenna Walter

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

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Marva

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

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Desertman84

Consenting Adults is a film an insurance scam movie where a con man frames his neighbor for the death of his wife. It stars Kevin Kline, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Kevin Spacey and Rebecca Miller. It was directed by Alan J. Pakula. Richard Parker and his wife Priscilla live an ordinary suburban life until they meet their new neighbors Eddy and Kay. The two couples become friends until some mate swapping is suggested by the men. The plot takes a nasty turn, however, when Richard sleeps with Kay, who turns up, the next morning, bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat. Soon, Richard is charged with the crime and must prove his innocence.Viewers shouldn't get their hopes up. This is the sort of thriller in which characters keep putting themselves in dangerous situations because as it requires them to be in dangerous situations. You see, soon after the movie ends, you start thinking about the script's little implausibility. To name just one: In a scene in which two people make love in a room with a flickering fireplace, one of the consenting adults doesn't recognize the other as an impostor -- not a spouse, not a familiar neighbor but an utter stranger. Indeed, the sex scenes are synthetic and perfunctory.The one true surprise has nothing at all to do with the plot: It's Kevin Spacey's hair. Dyed a glittering blond, it sets off his smirk, come- hither mug with maximum perversity. But still, he is great in his performance in this average and forgettable movie that is why I gave it an above average rating instead of an average one. This is the only reason why I would recommend watching it.

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jotix100

Richard and Priscilla Parker are a happily married couple. He works writing jingles for different products, as we meet him. Priscilla, who is also seen while he works at a recording studio, appears to be the one that handles the financial aspect. They have a teen aged daughter who is attending a boarding school. Their home is set in a well to do division in the suburb of Atlanta. They seem to have it all.Little do they know their life is about to change drastically when their new neighbors buy the house next to them. Eddy and Kay Otis are an attractive couple about the same age as the Parkers, but with no children. Eddy shows all the signs of being a fast operator. Kay, on the other hand, is the quiet one. Eddy is a glib man that gives the impression of being a con man, if there were ever one. The new arrivals latch on to the Parkers, as they become friends.Richard and Priscilla's marriage has seen better days. He works at home late into the night. Richard cannot help but to notice the beautiful Kay next door preparing for bed, or getting out of the bathtub with nothing on. He begins acting like a peeping tom. Eddy pulls a fast one when he is hit by Richard's car. He offers the settlement check to his friends, who at first, are reluctant to do so. The Parkers begin having second thoughts about their neighbors.One day, out of the blue, Eddy has an interesting proposal for Richard. How about switching wives, but not in the obvious way. Eddy wants to be subtle about it. One night, Richard, who cannot resist spending some time in the sack with Kay, comes down during the night. He is to go to the Otises, where Kay will be sleeping, have sex with her, and just return back home. Eddy is expected to do the same with Priscilla. Wrong decision, indeed. When Kay is found dead, all suspicions fall on Richard, the last one to have sex with her. But was that so? Richard's life goes into a tail spin as he tries to prove his innocence, only to get a lot of complications along the way."Consenting Adults" came almost at the end of Mr. Pakula's life. He met a horrible death. As a film director, Mr. Pakula enjoyed a good career in Hollywood, and even if this film was flawed, he showed he was the man that got good performances from actors that worked for him. As written by Matthew Chapman, the film holds a good promise up until the Kay's horrible death. After that, the film does not make much sense the way it was written, which leaves a lot of questions in the viewer's mind. Best thing in the film is Kevin Spacey at his weirdest. He is the most interesting character that contrasts with the more reserved Kevin Kline, whose Richard shows a high libido gone wrong, while Spacey's Eddy is a cunning evil man that has an ulterior motive to capitalize on Kay's murder. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Rebecca Miller, who is also a good director, play second fiddles to their high profiled husbands.

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moonspinner55

A textbook example of the Hitchcock-styled murder mystery--though with perhaps a few chapters missing. Far-fetched yarn has mild-mannered husband and father in suburbia goaded into "swapping" wives with his googly-eyed neighbor for one night of adult fun. The trouble begins when the neighbor's wife turns up dead--or does she? Smoke-and-mirrors thriller with insulting roles for E. G. Marshall as a lawyer and Forest Whitaker as a private investigator (neither allowed to do his job properly--and both vanishing by the third act). Alan J. Pakula is credited with the gummy direction (not an enviable accomplishment). It all comes down to a showdown between Kevin Kline (the wronged wrong man) and Kevin Spacey (the stranger in the house rather than on the train). About thirty minutes in, a group of happy neighbors and friends gather on a lawn and sing "The Twelve Days of Christmas", which is so flawless and note-perfect it seems to have come straight from a television commercial. That's when the realization sinks in this is just a TV-movie blown up on the big screen. ** from ****

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newday98074

Any number of Hollywood presentations stretch their plots to allow scenes that add thrills and give the actors a chance to "emote". CA takes this to another level, creating a universe where people do things for no particular reason except to keep the engine chugging along, pulling its strange cargo toward a requisite splashy finale. Along the way the movie becomes much like a creature that has passed through the transformation pods in "The Fly". You can kind of tell what was intended but the actual result is anything but pretty. Accompanying these oddities is the absolute stupidity required of the characters. At one point the lead, accused of one murder, discovers potential exculpatory evidence which he shares with an insurance investigator. This could save the insurance company 1.6 million dollars. The logical thing to do, of course, would be for the investigator, with the help of the police, to check this out saving the insurance company their money and eliminating the murder charge for the lead. But does the investigator follow it up? Well, that would be expecting these people to have high level thinking. High level in this case means what any reasonable person might think about. Since the characters in CA tend to have the thinking processes of turnips the lead follows up himself, resulting in yet another murder on his hands. However that does allow the requisite finale which is completed with the panache of a 5th grade play. The acting is fine, but plot holes and poor direction particularly of action sequences ruined the film.

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