Garry Marshall trots out the PRETTY WOMAN treatment for the S&M crowd in EXIT TO EDEN, an anemic blue-movie knockoff of TV's "Fantasy Island." Based on one of Anne Rice's oddball pornographic fantasies, the movie seems so terrified of its own reception in the heartland that it does
everything possible to sanitize the sex, shy of serving it up with steamed milk and sugar cookies.
Photojournalist Elliot Slater (Paul Mercurio) is in need of recapturing his self-esteem after being left at the altar. On the advice of a therapist, he joins the work force of Eden, a Hedonism-style resort on an island somewhere in the Caribbean. Here, attractive volunteers sign on to do the
sexual bidding of wealthy cruise patrons. The reluctant Elliot discovers an exhibitionistic streak while disrobing before the assembled guests, and soon becomes the personal project of Mistress Lisa (Dana Delany), the head dominatrix, whose burgeoning puppy love for Elliot threatens to disrupt her
day job. Meanwhile, undercover cops Fred Lavery (Dan Aykroyd) and Sheila Kingston (Rosie O'Donnell) are on the trail of international diamond smugglers Omar (Stuart Wilson) and Nina (Iman). No one knows what the crooks look like, so when Lavery and Kingston discover that Elliot has snapped a photo
of the pair, they extort their way onto the sex cruise manifest.
On the island, Elliot and the others are made to wear gold satin bikini thongs and assigned to work details. In an extended flashback, Mistress Lisa discloses her backstory: she was instructed in the forbidden pleasures by her mentor, Dr. Halifax (Hector Elizondo), a utopian theorist who
established the resort. She and Elliot begin to date, albeit within the rigorous strictures of their own social code: he sleeps like a dog at her bedside; she sits naked on his back; he bathes and shaves her; she finally chains him standing spread-eagled, like Sampson in the temple, and spanks him
with a hairbrush until he admits he likes it. Mistress Lisa is conflicted, but she agrees to a romantic weekend in New Orleans with Elliot to sort out their future together. They're pursued there by Omar, then by Lavery and Kingston, who successfully defuse the threat. Back on the island, everyone
regains his or her rightful partner, and true love wins the day.
EXIT TO EDEN is actually two movies that rarely intersect: one is a ham-handed fairy-tale sex fantasy; the other, a hoary cop/buddy narrative that wastes--yet again--the comic talents of Aykroyd and O'Donnell. As with PRETTY WOMAN, Marshall seeks to reconcile a tawdry sexual situation with
Hollywood-style morality--Elliot's assimilation of B&D values is seriously equated with his overcoming "fear of commitment." Meanwhile, the sight of Rosie O'Donnell stuffed into leather fetish gear is meant to elicit boffo yocks; it doesn't. No more entertaining is the spectacle of Dana Delany, an
actress of limited skill, struggling to be taken seriously in an inherently ludicrous role. (Violence, extensive nudity, sexual situations, adult situations, profanity.) leave a comment
