"Actor: Antonio Mario Silva Da Silva"

• Wild Orchid | DVD | (16/09/2002) from £44.32   |  Saving you £-31.33 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Soft-porn impresario Zalman King's Wild Orchid is supposed to be an "erotic drama", but it fails because there isn't the faintest semblance of chemistry between the three main players. "From the creators of 9 ½ Weeks comes the most eagerly awaited film of the year", trumpets the voice-over on the trailer, but therein lies the problem: in 9 ½ Weeks Mickey Rourke smouldered with Kim Basinger. In Wild Orchid, things have wilted before he even gets on screen. There is a vague semblance of plot: young, naïve, beautiful multilingual lawyer Emily (Carré Otis) is hired to help the obnoxious Claudia (Jacqueline Bisset), a big-time developer, to close a major property deal in Rio. Wheeler (Mickey Rourke) is the poor kid made good who proves the fly in the ointment. Bisset is supposed to have developed an obsession with the emotionally constipated Rourke after he rejected her. And Otis is supposed to be the one who eventually gets under his skin. But child-model turned actress Otis seems to be having trouble getting her swollen lips round a whole sentence at a time, let alone acting. The film dates from 1990 yet seems firmly stuck in the 1980s, from the obsession with all things commercial to the ludicrous fashion-sense (Rourke: big jacket, no shirt, lots of gold jewellery; Otis: virginal flowing dresses and tresses to match). And the sex scene, when it finally arrives in the dying moments, is brief and entirely unerotic. Brazil looks good though. On the DVD: Wild Orchid on disc has acceptable sound and picture, but the lack of any extra features is not impressive. When you get bored you can always amuse yourself by selecting from the substantial list of subtitles. --Harriet Smith