Lipstick

The provocative invitations of a top model (Margaux Hemingway) on lipstick advertising hoardings are taken up by a meek music teacher (Sarandon), who responds to her lack of interest by attacking and raping her. The subsequent court proceedings make much of the model's professional life as provocation: a theme reminiscent of Clint Eastwood's (superior) Play Misty for Me, which points to one way the subject could have been handled. In failing to reveal the model's persona as the materialisation (maintained at some cost to herself) of collective male fantasy, the script underlines its teleplay blandness. The final vision of Hemingway's flaming red-clad avenger, emerging from her sterile cocoon to line up her violator in her gun sights, seems like a gesture in search of a movie.