Wicked Ways

A teasingly naughty, blackly comic thriller that's haphazardly constructed and vacuously directed. Co-produced by the two leads, its uncertain tone eventually dissipates whatever steaminess it might have generated. Paranoid Ruth Draper (Rebecca DeMornay) has given up her lucrative career as an exotic dancer for a storybook Southern Californian marriage and, she hopes, children. Although Ruth adores her hubby, pharmaceutical salesman Matt Draper (Michael Rooker), she doubts his sincerity after she has a miscarriage and comes to the misguided belief that he wants to get rid of her permanently. She even goes so far as to booby trap their modest home. Matt, for his part,...