Body Language (1995)

Through A Glass, And Darkly...

BODY LANGUAGE stars Tom Berenger, Robert Patrick, Nancy Travis and Heidi Schanz. Berenger portrays a lonely criminal lawyer who meets a married exotic dancer (Schanz) by chance, and becomes her White Knight. Patrick plays Schanz's alcoholic, wife-beating, vicious, trailer-trash husband.

Berenger becomes consumed with helping Schanz escape from her miserable marriage and begins a slow, unstoppable descent as he is drawn further and further into Schanz's tortured reality. His character is innocent and vulnerable, an easy mark for anyone seeking his sympathy. Berenger's fall from grace is sickly nightmarish but has an inevitable quality to it that no one ever in a similar circumstance could fault. He never loses the viewer's compassion.

Schanz is incredibly sexual onscreen. The love scenes between Schanz and Berenger are not-quite explicit, and leave little (but just enough) to the imagination to avoid an NC-17 rating. Schanz moves between tawdry eroticism and wide-eyed ingenuousness with just a pout, a touch, and a thin sundress.

The acting is strong, though Patrick and Travis (as Berenger's law partner) have very little screen time compared to Berenger and Schanz. The novice Schanz carries the film.

A criticism of this film revolves around a technical point of the men's club business: no dancer's boyfriend or husband would ever be allowed back in the dressing room area to duke it out with anyone; bouncers would quickly eject violent customers. As a result, the initial confrontation between Berenger and Patrick inside the bar is simply beyond possibility. Too, the club, "Devil's Playground" seems far seedier and emptier than reality would dictate. However, the film does capture its own sense of depravity and evil with a master's touch.

BODY LANGUAGE is a low-budget erotic thriller made by HBO Films. Another reviewer states that the VHS version is edited; having seen this film on HBO, I can't comment on that. If you are a fan of the genre, BODY LANGUAGE is well worth seeing. April 18, 2005

VHS is cut version of film shown on tv

For what it's worth, the great sex scene here with Heidi SCHANZ (not Kluge like some dimwit mentioned) was apparently chopped a little between being telecast on HBO and released on video. I can't find any evidence that there is an uncut version available for purchase, so this is it. Shame too, because those few seconds made this practically as hot as the uncut Spader/Amick scene in "Dream Lover". Buy this only for the rare gem Heidi SCHANZ!!
UPDATE: The DVD has restored the full sex scene with the previously-trimmed overhead shots. June 30, 2004

The pits

I'm a huge Tom Berenger fan but I simply can't say anything good about this film. The plot is horrible, the acting unconvincing (even Berenger), the dialouge laughable and the ending, well, sour to say the least. The pits. March 17, 2004

Heidi Kluge is HOT..HOT..HOT

This film is worth seeing for Heidi Kluge (the co-star). Also, it's not a bad movie in the Black Widow veign...In any case..Enjoy Ms. Kluge June 29, 2003

Depressing! Not very good.

This was a competently made film, I suppose. The actors all did fine in their roles, and I like all the lead stars--Tom Berenger, Nancy Travis and Robert Patrick ("Terminator II" and "X-Files"). But still, this film was depressing. It was a bad knock-off of "Body Heat". The story was interesting enough if you aren't familiar with "Body Heat", but "Body Heat" is much better.

If you are a fan of any of the lead actors, you might want to catch this film just to see them, but be prepared. It's a depressing and somewhat tawdry B-movie. The main character (Berenger) is a lawyer with questionable morals who behaves like a complete gullible idiot and lets himself get sucked into something horrible. Patrick plays a wife-beating jerk--if you are a fan of his, you'll be disappointed because he doesn't get a lot of screen time. Travis plays the only character who is really likeable, and she's not in the movie nearly enough either.

I don't recommend this film. I wanted to see it in part because I so liked Berenger in "The Last of the Dogmen", made the same year as this film. Boy, what a contrast. I recommend "Dogmen" instead of this film (even though they are different genres). "Dogmen" will leave you feeling good, this film will leave you feeling depressed. December 21, 2002

More reviews at Amazon.com ...