Dangerous Beauty MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +2 1/2 Content: -3

Set in 16th century Venice, DANGEROUS BEAUTY is the true story of Veronica Franco (Catherine McCormack), a very beautiful and shrewd courtesan. In Venice, beautiful courtesans serve as sexual partners for wealthy noblemen. Veronica has no desire to be a courtesan, but she falls in love with a young dashing nobleman, Marco Venier (Rufus Sewell), who can't marry her because she is far below his social status. So, Veronica's mother teaches her to be a courtesan and she soon becomes the most desired and admired courtesan in Venice. But she and Marco are still madly in love and cannot stay apart from each other. Eventually, Marco must leave to fight against the Turks and returns to find that disease is ravaging Venice and the courtesans are being blamed for bringing the wrath of God down on the sinful city. At first, it appears that Veronica will not survive this crisis, but with Marco's help she proves to be even more resourceful than expected.

This sumptuous, sensual drama is well done and will likely hold audiences in rapt attention. However, all the sadness in Veronica's life makes it rather dreary. Filming the life of a elite prostitute is not necessarily unacceptable, and Veronica's life as a courtesan is not portrayed as desirable or without adverse consequences. However, three of her sexual encounters are graphically shown with breast nudity, and some other bedroom scenes suggest sex. And there is a great deal of explicit discussion of sex, particularly some of the instructions Veronica's mother gives to her. In one scene, she instructs Veronica using a nude man, although the man in not shown fully nude. Further, startling sexual obscenities are used several times. When Veronica is tried for witchcraft by a tribunal of clergymen, she refuses to repent for her promiscuous life and protests that Venice women must be subservient wives and may not be free to marry whomever they love. One of the clergymen in the trial is cruel and bigoted, but a priest who continuously calls for Venice to turn from its sinful ways is portrayed fairly. Although DANGEROUS BEAUTY is realistic, it is much too sexually explicit to be desirable movie viewing.

Preview Reviewer: John Evans
Distributor: Warner Brothers, 4000 Warner Blvd., Burbank, CA, 91522