I never read Ira Levin's novel Sliver but I do own the video. Sliver (1993) starts off showing panoramic photographic pictures of Naomi Singer's upscale Manhattan apartment building. The camera covers every aspect of the building eventually showing the inside of her apartment moving to the picturesque balcony. Suddenly a hooded man wearing gloves enters the apartment pushing Naomi over the balcony to her death. The scene then moves to introvert book editor Carly Norris (Sharon Stone) making an appointment to view that same apartment. Carly puts in her application and goes back to work where she engages in a friendly and jovial conversation with a coworker about dating and relationships. Carly gets the timely call at work and is amazed she has received approval so quickly.


Upon moving into her apartment she meets the handsome young landlord Zeke Hawkins (William Baldwin) who offers to carry her boxes explaining how well he knows the neighborhood recommending an expensive grocery store. While shopping she meets NYU professor Gus Hale (Keene Curtis) who teaches a psychology of the lens course. He welcomes her to the apartment and tells her that she reminds him of Naomi Singer the previous resident of apartment 20B who reportedly jumped off of her balcony. After returning to her box cluttered apartment Carly begins to settle in playing a leisurely game of golf with a coffee cup, eventually engaging in a little voyeurism gazing into the window of another apartment watching them have a party. She eventually settles down for the evening and takes a steamy bath. It is at this point that the screen changes to what appears to be the apartment's black and white monitoring camera where the screen turns to black and white. This cinematic foreplay continues as the camera begins focusing on the fully exposed Carly and her manual excitation of her lower organs.


The next day Carly, has lunch with her boss Alex Parsons (Martin Landau) who introduces her to the dashing author Jack Landsford (Tom Berenger). Jack is smitten with Carly however she initially does not feel the same towards him. Carly returns to her apartment where the digitally enhanced monitoring system displays the diverse group of tenants going about their daily lives. Once again, the viewer is treated to another bathroom scene with Carly only this time there is another deadly shower scene where Professor Hale appears to die. Next we see Carly running through the park for a morning jog, frightened by hooded Jack who wearing dark sunglasses. The films plot revolves around Carly coping with her new found independence after a 7 year failed marriage. She looks similar to the previous tenant who was murdered. One of the apartment dwellers is a stalker and voyeur watching everyone in the complex with hidden monitors. While Carly is trying to get her dating life off the ground, a killer is cutting down the competition.


This film features the talents of erotically moaning Sharon Stone, heavy-breathing William Baldwin and the flat Tom Berenger. There is nothing really special about their theatrical performances except the sporadic dialogue between Stone's character and one of her co-workers. Physically Sharon Stone is in tiptop shape showing lots of skin. Director Phillip Noyce's explicit insights into apartment voyeurism are unattractively brought to the big screen in this eccentric movie. Noyce fails to draw his audience into the plight of his lead characters focusing most of his attention on a sophisticated video surveillance system. The simple sex scenes and bland dialogue feel crass leaving little complexity to the films storyline. The film jumps from scene to scene feeling like a cut-and-paste senior paper that's been goggled off the Internet. A large part of the film's focus on lust and the violation of privacy becomes a mute point after the first 30 minutes. The films 1 hour and 46 minute run time feels like an eternity.


The film is not suitable for young audiences with its strong Basic Instinct flavored R rating. The camera gets everything possible including various sex scenes, partial nudity, vulgar language, and violence. In the end this lethargic rump soaks up about an hour and a half of your time trying to change cultural mores on voyeurism. At the end of the day this film's overly graphic adolescent approach to sexuality, piebald plot and the cast weak performances garners this film a dismal two out of five stars. Sliver probably should have gone straight to cable or perhaps the Playboy channel.


Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age