In 1980s Drew Barrymore, thanks to E.T., became one of the biggest child stars of the decade. Unlike most child stars, whose careers in adulthood ended or fizzled out, Berrymore managed to handled transition well and became even bigger star in 1990s. The most important part of that process was Poison Ivy, 1992 erotic thriller directed by Katt Shea.
The protagonist and narrator, played by Sara Gilbert, is Sylvie Cooper, mousy teenager who is deeply unhappy with her life despite privileged upbringing. She attends private school where she doesn’t have any friends, but that changes when she accidentally meets another teenage girl (played by Barrymore) she begins calling “Ivy”. She represents everything Sylvie is not – attractive, extrovert, willing to take risks and act crazy. Two of them soon become friends and Ivy also gets introduced to Sylvie’s wealthy but dysfunctional family – hard-drinking father Darryl (played by Tom Skerritt), a television station manager and mother Georgie (played by Cheryl Ladd), faded beauty whose struggle with emphysema made her near-suicidal. Ivy gradually wins Sylvie’s parents’ affections and even manages to move into their mansion. She also gets seduced by luxury she never could have enjoyed due to her own impoverished background. After a while, Sylvie becomes noticing that her friend began series of lies and manipulations with the clear aim of seducing Darryl and removing Georgie from the picture in order to take her place.
Hollywood at the time produced many thrillers about seemingly idyllic middle or upper class families being threatened by seemingly innocuous intruder. What made Poison Ivy stand out was the intruder being Lolita-like teenage seductress. This made the concept look trashy, exploitative and potentially controversial, but a lot of problems were evaded by director and co-writer Katt Shea being a woman. Furthermore, Drew Barrymore was actually 17 years of age during the production, so the producers were very careful that the erotic content in the film gets as subtle as possible, with the careful editing and use of body doubles. Shea, who had experience as director of sex-themed exploitation films for Roger Corman, did good job in Poison Ivy, both in maintaining quick pace and creating semi-“noirish” atmosphere with many scenes occurring during rain and effective music by David Michael Frank.
However, the biggest asset of the film was the cast, which handled thankless and potentially dangerous roles very well. Drew Barrymore isn’t among the most attractive of Hollywood actresses of her generation, but in Poison Ivy, just like in many of her later hits, she compensated it with energetic performance, creating a “wild” and “crazy” character that could easily seduce a man in midlife crisis. Another effective casting choice was Sara Gilbert, who was deliberately made look as unattractive as possible in order to make character of Ivy stand out. Gilbert, despite many flaws and acts that might make her look spoiled, manages to ultimately win audience’s sympathies. Veteran Tom Skerritt is dependable in his role, just like Cheryl Ladd who remains the most attractive of all actresses in the film despite her character being struck with debilitating disease. Their work is very good, but script by Shea and her husband Andy Ruben could have been slightly better, especially near the end when there is too much melodrama and predictability. Poison Ivy wasn’t greeted well by critics, despite being nominated for Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival. It also failed at the box office, but, just like so many erotic thrillers in 1990s, had very good results at home video, leading to three sequels. Original film is, unsurprisingly, the best of them and could be recommended even to those who aren’t Barrymore’s fans or have great fondness for erotic thrillers.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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