Stone is fire, the movie...

Back in the old days before the internet, it was harder to peer into other people’s lives. What was one to do other than stare out the window (like in “Rear Window”) or set up video surveillance like in this movie, “Sliver”. Coming from “Basic Instinct” exploitationist writer Joe Eszterhas, you can expect a lot of murder, sex, and male-female power struggles as well.

He again gets top-notch work from Sharon Stone, playing Carly Norris, a book editor looking for a fresh start in a new apartment after ending her terrible 7 year marriage. She gets to know some people around the building, such as Zeke (William Baldwin), a computer game designer with deeper ties to the building than he lets on, and Jack (Tom Berenger), an arrogant former journalist turned smutty book author. She also realizes that the former tenant of her apartment committed suicide, and oddly the tennant looked just like her.

Also unbeknownst to her, every apartment in the building seems equipped with hidden cameras and someone spends much of their time surrounded in a hidden room by nothing but monitors like The Architect from “The Matrix Reloaded.” It’s very skeezy, but you get to see some pretty great stuff- like what Stone does in the bath with no one watching. Carly begins a sexual relationship with Zeke and an adversarial one with Jack, both men, coincidentally, were also rumored to be involved with the suicidal woman and as more deaths occur around the building, they both have suspicion thrown on them.

But “Sliver’s” main attraction is the sex, where Stone once again proves she was the best sensual actress working. The movie ran into some problems over content with the MPAA, but Stone is still fire- biting her lip, moaning, grunting, and writhing in thrilling fashion. But what gives it that extra bit of tension is that her bad marriage has also left her conflicted, unsure of herself and what she’s getting herself into.

As for Baldwin, you rarely remember he’s even in the room and Berenger plays just an odd duck, a man who likes to jump out at women on the running trail and break into their apartments for fun.

Director Phillip Noyce is fine with the sex stuff but his murders are about as generic as they come- happening in dark corners, and this is the rainiest look at New York i’ve ever seen. What’s strange is that all the sex and murders seem to detract from the true story of voyeurism, which makes a few good points- mostly that it’s disgusting but hard to look away- but none of it is really moving the plot forward. It’s also telling that once the murder is solved, the movie quickly goes to credits, the voyeuristic character arc never feels completely done. Supposedly this movie had some production problems, and other than Stone’s fine work, that’s not hard to see.