sex, lies and videotape

sex, lies and videotape. 1989 Outlaw Productions & Miramax Films, released to DVD by Columbia TriStar Home Video.
Starring: James Spader, Andie MacDowell, Peter Gallagher, Laura San Giacomo
Director: Steven Soderbergh
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This movie helped trigger the 1990s indie film boom, and helped turn Andie MacDowell into a star. It also launched director Steven Soderbergh's career.

Ann and John Millaney (MacDowell & Gallagher) live in Louisiana, and they are a seemingly troubled couple. While Ann feels secure in her marriage, she has absolutely no interest in sex, even telling her therapist that she's more worried about refuse disposal. Her husband, on the other hand, is still very interested in sex, and is having an affair with Ann's sister Cynthia (San Giacomo). Cynthia is the complete opposite of Ann in every way; sex is the one area where she knows that she can best Ann, and she relishes her ability to seduce John behind Ann's back. John frequently leaves his job early to have sex with Cynthia, blowing off clients, and justifies this by blaming Ann's sexual repression.

Graham Dalton (Spader), a college friend of John, comes back home after nine years, and he is temporarily staying with the Millaneys until he finds his own apartment. Nine years after the fact, John is visably uncomfortable with Graham's bohemian lifestyle. We later learn that Graham cannot perform sexually in the presence of another human being, so he had developed a hobby where he interviews women about their sexual experiences and fantasies on videotape, and privately uses them to achive gratification. This distresses Ann, who made an impromptu visit to Graham. Cynthia comes by the next day to ask what Ann was so bothered about. After explaining what he does, Graham talks Cynthia into making a videotape, assuring her no one else but him will see it. Cynthia agrees, and reports back to a horrified Ann, and she even tells John.

Later, Ann discovers that John has been cheating with Cynthia in her bedroom, so she goes to see Graham with the intent of making a video of her own. When that's finished, she confronts John and says she wants out of the marriage. John learns that Ann made a video with the help of Graham, so he breaks into the apartment after locking Graham out and watches it. Ann confesses that she thinks John is a terrible lover, and that she's been fantasizing about other men, most recently Graham. The camera is turned on Graham, and Ann eggs him on into confessing that he is haunted by an old love named Elizabeth. The video ends with Ann and Graham moving closer to each other. With the tape watched, John sees Graham and gleefully admits to sleeping with Elizabeth while she was involved with Graham, which causes him to destroy his tapes and video camera. John gets his comeuppance at the end, and he loses his job thanks to his frequent cancellations of meetings in favor of sex with Cynthia. Ann and Cynthia bury the hatchet, and Ann has started seeing Graham, or so it's implied.

A very significant and historic film. Highly, highly recommended.