There are basically two options if you go the B movie erotic thriller route. You either flirt dangerously close to pornography, or you plot twist your movie to death, to make it as fun as possible. Deadly Illusions goes 0 for 2. The movie is wanna be softcore material elevated by solid actors like Kristin Davis and Greer Grammer, so that means no nudity. Strike one. So the movie rides pretty heavily on its one plot twist, which isn’t enough to make the movie fun for large chunks of time. I guess the deadliest illusion was that this movie was going to be sexy fun. Zing!
Kristin Davis plays Mary, a pulpy Fifty Shades like adult novelist who’s been taking a writing break to raise her kids and live comfortably with her husband Tom (Dermot Mulroney). When her publicist entices her to write a new novel, Mary reluctantly agrees, on the condition they find a babysitter for her kids. In comes the sweet innocent appearing Grace, played by Greer Grammer, who is not only a hit with the kids, but might be arousing all sort of feelings in Mary as she embarks upon her novel writing immersion.
Deadly Illusions gives away its premise in the title. Mary method writes, meaning she starts imagining herself in her next salacious novel. That means that the whole plot of the movie can best be seen as a dream sequence until the ending. For a casual viewer, that’s great! That means you only have to pay attention when Kristin Davis, Dermot Mulroney, or Greer Grammer start taking off clothes in a classy way or the porn/thriller music starts. Or if you’re into California’s real estate market, you can Property Hunt yourself through Mary’s house and neighborhood, because this house is bound to excite you more than what’s going on onscreen. But if you want character development, or smart decision making, or realistic dialogue, deadly dumb illusions await you. A big finale could have saved something dumb like Deadly Illusions, and the twist at least is swinging for the fences a little. However, that twist basically ignores the movie before it leaving you feeling weird and a bit unsatisfied that the movie wasn’t more risky or bold in its potentially salacious material.
It’s not good when the best parts of an erotic thriller are tracking shots inside of a beautiful house. Deadly Illusions could have been something super fun and crazy, and instead is pretty bland and chaste, bad choices for a movie built on sex and violence. That house is so beautiful though, that part of me hoped the twist would have been the house is a human venus flytrap, sucking these terrible characters to hell. Now that’s a twist ending!