Review: Wet (1995)

Director: Bob Rafelson | 29 minutes | comedy, short film | Actors: Arliss Howard, Cynda Williams, Kathleen Wilhoite, John Toles-Bey, Lela Ivey, Gabrielle Taurek

The name Bob Rafelson will not sound familiar to many people. His productions like “Five Easy Pieces”, “The Postman Always Rings Twice” and “Blood and Wine” (all coincidentally with Jack Nicholson) do, however. For the first, the director even received two Oscar nominations.

In 1995 Rafelson delivered the short film “Wet”, which is bundled in a collection of similar short films as part of “Tales of Erotica”. “Law” is more funny than erotic, “the act” is not shown (you may even wonder if it happened at all). We do see a lot of the buttocks of lead actress Cynda Williams and now and then she shows her breasts (but have a quick look!).

Unfortunately, there is no exciting man in the lead, because he is a rather wimpy guy seduced in the bathroom shop, really such a prototype of a dozed off salesman. It is inherent to the plot, of course, because an attractive, more self-assured man would probably not have responded to Davida’s request. The story is more important than the eroticism in this little thing. Davida’s motives remain rather obscure, and this is really the only thing that excites. Does she want a juicy article for the magazine she freelances for or does she have other reasons for getting naked in a showroom hot tub? The ending is a bit lackluster, and although not entirely predictable, no viewer will be really surprised.