MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Evidence:’ Where’s the Body? : When it comes to putting raw passion and sex on screen, ‘Wild Kingdom’ turns out to be far more involving.

Take a sexually liberated star whose last project was a clothing-optional book that had to be sealed in Mylar. Add a plot line about whether it is possible to, shall we say, love someone to death. Throw in a few scenes involving hot wax, handcuffs and other sex toys borrowed from the Spanish Inquisition. It may sound racy, but the naked truth is that the only thing in “Body of Evidence” that comes close to sizzling is that overheated wax.

Starring Madonna as a “did she or didn’t she” murder suspect and Willem Dafoe as the legal eagle who risks his marriage, his reputation and his ability to get a good night’s sleep to defend her, “Body of Evidence” (citywide) promises a great deal more than it can deliver. Yes, there is a lot of talk about passion without limits and the animal side of human sexual behavior, but when it comes to putting the same on screen, “Wild Kingdom” turns out to be considerably more involving.

Like “Basic Instinct,” to which it bears a feeble family resemblance, “Body” opens with the death of a prominent and wealthy businessman in sexually superheated circumstances. His death certificate may read cardiac arrest, but D.A. Robert Garrett (Joe Mantegna) didn’t just fall off the turnip truck.

After viewing some spicy home movies the deceased conveniently left behind and hearing what his loyal secretary (Anne Archer) has to say about Rebecca Carlson (Madonna), the dead man’s very lively girlfriend and prime beneficiary, Garrett decides that the rather unusual charge of murder by fornication is in order. “She is the worst kind of killer,” he thunders to the jury, “because she disguised herself as a loving partner.”

Rather than hire Dr. Ruth as a character witness, Rebecca employs defense attorney Frank Dulaney (Dafoe). Though he is supposed to be some sort of legal Sir Galahad, Frank comes across as more oafish than domineering. And he doesn’t even blink when Rebecca hits him with a series of venerable lines such as “He wasn’t old to me” and the always popular “They’re trying to take something good and make it dirty.”

Once Frank is hired, “Body of Evidence” proceeds down a pair of equally silly and unconvincing lines. One is the courtroom battle, which, despite lawyers leaping up and down and objecting at the slightest provocation, is remarkably listless. Surprise witnesses and socko testimony are the orders of the day (“Frank, I can explain everything” is one of Rebecca’s frequent lines) but the shocks are too arbitrary to be at all convincing.

The same goes for the romance between the nominally married attorney and his girls-just-want-to-have-fun client, a femme fatale who seems to have looked to Torquemada for sex tips. Much to his surprise (if no one else’s) Frank turns out to share her taste for the wilder shores of love, and soon he and Rebecca are turning places like the P4 level of the courtroom garage into their own private lovers’ lane.

This taste for passion in the most uncomfortable places is shared by the characters in the current “Damage,” but the difference is that while Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche bring enough conviction to their roles to involve you in their unlikely situation, the protagonists in “Body of Evidence” (despite its R rating for strong sexuality, language, violence) never do.

Though both Madonna and Dafoe have been convincing on screen in the past, they are too self-absorbed as actors to create the kind of interpersonal chemistry this story demands. She seems too knowing for her role, he too distant for his, and the resulting lack of mutual involvement sinks whatever hopes this vehicle had.

Not that it had that many to begin with. Brad Mirman’s script is rife with hollow lines and arbitrary situations and director Uli Edel, whose previous “Last Exit To Brooklyn” was well-received, has been unable to bring any energy at all to the screen. Even the heavy-breathing sex scenes, about which, the press notes reveal, “the collaborators sat and discussed for hours,” feel passionless and over-rehearsed. Perhaps, like many other overprepared athletes, the players in “Body of Evidence” left their best game in the locker room.

‘Body of Evidence’

Madonna: Rebecca Carlson

Willem Dafoe: Frank Dulaney

Joe Mantegna: Robert Garrett

Anne Archer: Joanne Braslow

Julianne Moore: Sharon Dulaney

Jurgen Prochnow: Dr. Alan Paley

Frank Langella: Jeffrey Roston

Released by MGM. Director Uli Edel. Producer Dino De Laurentiis. Executive producers Stephen Deutsch, Melinda Jason. Screenwriter Brad Mirman. Cinematographer Doug Milsome. Editor Thom Noble. Costumes Susan Becker. Music Graeme Revell. Production design Victoria Paul. Art director Michael Rizzo. Set decorator Jerie Kelter. Running time: 1 hour, 39 minutes.

MPAA-rated R (strong sexuality, language and violence).