Customer Reviews

Mercy

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

When it comes to sex, normative behavior depends on the circles in which one travels. This film traverses a very sordid perimeter, and jolts us with images ranging from mild deviance to utter depravity. The themes include a women's club where affluent married women come to cheat on their husbands with other women, as well as transvestitism, sadomasochism, dominance and bondage, lesbian seduction and incest. Oh, and lest I forget the main storyline, we have serial killings where the mutilated female victims are always found in the nude.

Ellen Barkin plays a homicide detective investigating the killings. In the course of the investigation, she becomes obsessed with Vicki, who is a suspect due to her connection with two of the victims. Vicki introduces her to a world where pain, pleasure and sex collide.

This is a bold venture into sex noir that is sometimes provocative and at others disturbing, raw and distasteful. The plot was good and the ending original as mass murder stories go. Unfortunately, the presentation was very disjointed and often hard to follow. That is probably because the investigation took a back seat to the sexual odyssey, which meandered self-indulgently from hedonism to perversion. This film contained a good deal of nudity, some of which was appropriate to the story and much of which was gratuitous.

The direction by Damian Harris was good with a lot of interesting perspective shots and tight close-ups that enhanced both the suspense and the lustful aspects. However, the cinematography lost a great deal because the color quality was poor.

Ellen Barkin was a good choice for the lead in this film. Barkin has a natural toughness combined with a scorching sexuality, which was the precise combination her character needed. Peta Wilson played the sexually gifted Vicki and was seductive, sultry and lascivious.

Overall, this was a good, well-acted thriller with bizarre sexual preoccupations. I rated it 7/10, but I can understand why so many people hated it. It is definitely not for everyone. Many viewers will find the deviant sexual themes repugnant and offensive. If you are averse to lesbianism, sexual perversion or graphic gore you will want to go out of your way to miss this film.

Mercy was a movie that was released on HBO. Thus, I found it to be a "hotter" than anything that is usually released in the theater. Therefore, most viewers would probably compare it to a lesbian Basic Instinct with the post-violent scenes of Seven.

This movie could have been far more ugly and brutal had we had to witness the deaths of the victims. Instead, we only had to view the aftermath. Ellen Barkin did a tremendous job of playing a homicide detective with the brains, intuitiveness and, dare I say, spunk. Really, I loved her chasing after the bald bad guy. Barkin showed physical dominance, as well as brains as she tried to get into the lives of these potential lesbian victims in order to find her killer.

Peta Wilson's character Vickie Kittrie was a dark, hurt, yet successful woman. She made you see how awful the effects of sexual child abuse often comes back to haunt adults. This character is not at all like Nikita, so if you're expecting your USA Network hero, it's not one to watch.

However, I think that this film could have happened without having Julian Sands character at all. All you know about the Sands character is that he sleeps with his patients and likes to dress up as a woman. I'm not sure how either of those facts really improves the film.

Overall, I think the script was satisfactory and that the cast really played their parts very well. Harris did a good job here on gutting the underbelly of a dangerous, sexual underground of some deeply disturbed, rich people.

I rather enjoyed this movie. I thought the acting was very good. It kept me alert, and thinking throughout. THIS IS NOT A FILM ABOUT lesbianism at all. What I do think, it has a lot more to do with "bondage" "s/m". If your looking for kinky lesbian sex, your not going to expierience it here.

However, if your looking for a movie that dabbles, in the minds of certain main stream adults who have hang-ups with sex and pain, then this may be entertaining for you.

Ellen Barkin, was perfect for this role, her facial expression told her story before her mouth moved. yet you wern't quite sure if she was wondering out loud on the fact that she may like this alternative life style.

Peta Wilson, also did a tremndous job in role playing in this film. Im serious wondering, why I havent seen her in more films. She was utterly convincing, and beautifully attired in this movie.

All in all a good movie, that I will view again in the near future.

OK, I'll admit it --- I only rented this because I'd heard it was about kinky lesbians, one of whom is apparently a murderer. Hey, that's MORE than enough for me! And the casting was exceptionally good, with Ellen Barkin as an incredibly sexy detective, and Peta Wilson smouldering ever so seductively as her #1 suspect. Yes, they even had a scene together where Peta tries to seduce her --- very promising --- until they cut it short, which is my primary complaint about this movie! The sizzling scenes are WAY TOO BRIEF, while the boring crime drama stuff goes on forever! Basically, this film is a weak version of "Sea of Love." The inclusion of a wealthy lesbian s&m club was an innovative plot twist, but it's almost like the producers/writers didn't know where to go with it so they simply dropped it! The writers clearly wanted to make a serious thriller, so they played down the erotica --- and ended up with neither! Still, it's worth checking out for what sapphic content there is, and it's HOT! Peta and Ellen are beautiful women, and their chemistry together was quite nice!

Yes, this movie has lesbianism, bondage, nudity, fetishism, Ellen Barkin. No, it is NOT for sex-hungry little perverts! After reading some of the other reviews, I have to say it's obvious that some people didn't understand the movie. It's not for everyone, really, because it explores very difficult subjects and can make you quite uncomfortable. Contrary to what you may think when reading some of the other reviews, "Mercy" is not about sex between women. It is merely where the scene is set. So if you are keen to watch ladies getting it on, this is not the movie for you, go buy a Penthouse or something.

Mercy will appeal to people who are not easily shocked, who are able to read between the lines, and who can follow up on an unfinished train of thought themselves. The movie is very flawed, I'll admit. Maybe the director wasn't focused enough. BUT: If you want to REALLY blow your mind, read the book. It's incredibly brilliant, and the movie isn't a patch on it.

I really can not make up my mind properly about Mercy, and it did offer me a slight dilemma reviewing it,
On the plus side, there is Peta Wilson, playing a lesbian who is into SM and who has an erotically charged scene with Ellen Barkin. So as far as erotic/thriller genre is concerned this is somehow a new twist.
On the down side, it is very badly filmed and scripted, a poor imitation of Dressed to Kill without the Hitchcockian atmosphere or De Palma's able direction. And it has also poor Julian Sands with yet another bad role, as bad in fact as his role in Boxing Helena, and this is no easy feat to manage, but he did!
So you can watch/buy this movie for Peta 'lezzing' it up, not a bad thing in itself,yet you can also be excused for using the word 'Mercy' only to be spared such mediocrity in the future..You decide!

With the excellent female cast of this movie, Mercy could have been a "must see" sexual thriller about female desire and perversion. Instead, as I was watching the movie, I couldn't help feeling annoyed at the fact that the director(Harris) was holding back on the terrific sexual tension between Peta(Vicki) and Ellen(Catherine) throughout the movie. I can understand the tease but when Peta finally made her big move on Ellen....(PUSH!). What's up with that? We all know that if was Bruce, Brad, Harrison, or Tom(Cruise) in that situation, there would have been a love scene that would set the screen on fire. It's not that I didn't respect Ellen's integrity but spontaneus hetero sexual encounters never affected male cop performances in the end.

Dispite that complaint, the movie is very watchable if you are into pyscho thrillers. Julian Sands is great as the kinky therapist who sometimes sleeps with his clients while wearing panty hose. It was also nice to see Wendy Crewson let it loose for a change but I wish her role in the movie was more clearly defined. Luckily, if you are Ellen Birkin and Peta Wilson fans like I am, you'll probaly like this film more than most people.

I have the DVD version of the movie and it comes with the full screen American version(same as the VHS version) and the letterboxed unrated european version on the flip side. There isn't much difference between the two versions except that the european version has more flashback sequences involving Catherine and her ex-husband and his girlfriend.

As a big fan of Peta Wilson, I had to watch this movie. Although it was not my usual genre of films, I did enjoy Ms Wilson. As usual she presented the character in an honest and refreshing way. This lady is a future big time star and I am thrilled to be a fan now. If you are a Peta fan, don't be afraid to see her in a new and differant kind of film.

I like Ellen Barkin. I feel completely unashamed in saying that. She has a marvelously dusky voice and a body that is preternaturally carnal, but the key to Barkin is that fierce intelligence behind her eyes. She always seems to be five steps ahead, ready to pounce. Thanks to films like "The Big Easy" and especially "Sea of Love", I am always interested in the work she is doing, and hold a rather high opinion of her as an actress, even in films that aren't that great (i.e.: "Bad Company"). So I held out a little hope for this one, a minor-league erotic thriller. Well, long story short, my hopes were immediately dashed. "Mercy" is a slog through an hour and a half of pretentious psychobabble and gory naked corpses, neither of which hold much interest for the bored viewer. Barkin essentially has the Michael Douglas part in this mish-mash, playing the same repressed detective that has appeared in too many movies, and will continue to exist until the end of time. She receives a guided tour of a way-too-art-directed sexual underworld from a bombshell named Vickie (played as well as possible by Aussie actress Peta Wilson, best known from TV's "Le Femme Nikita"), and in the meantime, we meet a cross-dressing sex therapist, played by Julian Sands, who now seems content to play characters as weirdly as he can. Oh, and we get the traditional red herrings, truncated sex scenes, and coldly photographed violence so common to direct-to-video sludge. When the ending finally happens--that's the kind of movie this is: it just sort of ends, and you are left kicking yourself for letting yourself become titillated by its supposed eroticism--you can't help but appreciate the sheer professionalism in the filmmaking, the slick artificiality of the sets, and the apparent talents of a few of the actors. Hopefully, all of this will also tick you off just a little, because you have to wonder what kind of movie could have been made if they'd cared about story and characters, too. For what it's worth, I still think very highly of Ellen Barkin, but she needs to talk to her agent about this one, if she hasn't thought of that already. I assume she has.

I totally enjoyed this movie. I saw it when I was 15 years old and I never forgot the plot, however, I did forget the name. Few years later, my friend told me she had a 'great' movie at home. So we watched it and boom!!!, here it was Mercy! I immediatly bought it and keep loving it.