Eric Balfour's charm eludes me but Lauren Lee Smith exudes heat. She's beautiful in a conventional way and has a habit of holding her face down a little so that she looks up from under her brows like some kind of predator before a charge. She narrates the film and the script is pretty explicit about intercourse and the foreplay and fifthplay that precedes it.
The problem with the story is that it doesn't really hang together well. Balfour takes her around and introduces her to sex, and she has a family and friends with difficulties. "Emmanuelle" was equally complex.
I'll just give two examples of what I mean. Smith picks up some half-frightened virginal guy at a cafe and takes him out in the backyard for a bit of carnal knowledge. She provides him with a condom and while they're getting after it she's telling herself, "Don't come. Don't come." Why not? And to whom is she referring -- her partner or herself? And, in either case, what's her motive? (There's a little nudity but no explicit sex, by the way.) Second illustration. Balfour has been giving her the eye and he leads her around coyly, knowing she's following him. They wind up in a children's playground, in one of those plastic tubes provided for kids to crawl through. He crawls into it and stops at the end. She stops at the opposite end and goes through these motions of pulling off her top and tickling herself where it counts. And Balfour lies there, watching and smiling, and caressing himself for a minute or two, then skips off and walks away without a word. What is this movie about? I guess it's about the relationships between people, especially those involving sex, but if so it's a pretty shallow snapshot. Since the point of view is that of the heroine, I presume this reflects feminine concerns the significance of which managed to slip by me. I don't mean to sound sexist. There have been gripping films made strictly from a woman's point of view -- I'll mention "Rebecca" in passing -- but this one meanders all over the place with no resolution.
It's possible that, limited by my own hard wiring, my heuristic apparatus had its shoelaces tied together in this instance. If so, my apologies. I notice quite a few good reviews elsewhere, so if I didn't get it -- and I didn't -- maybe it's my own fault.
The problem with the story is that it doesn't really hang together well. Balfour takes her around and introduces her to sex, and she has a family and friends with difficulties. "Emmanuelle" was equally complex.
I'll just give two examples of what I mean. Smith picks up some half-frightened virginal guy at a cafe and takes him out in the backyard for a bit of carnal knowledge. She provides him with a condom and while they're getting after it she's telling herself, "Don't come. Don't come." Why not? And to whom is she referring -- her partner or herself? And, in either case, what's her motive? (There's a little nudity but no explicit sex, by the way.) Second illustration. Balfour has been giving her the eye and he leads her around coyly, knowing she's following him. They wind up in a children's playground, in one of those plastic tubes provided for kids to crawl through. He crawls into it and stops at the end. She stops at the opposite end and goes through these motions of pulling off her top and tickling herself where it counts. And Balfour lies there, watching and smiling, and caressing himself for a minute or two, then skips off and walks away without a word. What is this movie about? I guess it's about the relationships between people, especially those involving sex, but if so it's a pretty shallow snapshot. Since the point of view is that of the heroine, I presume this reflects feminine concerns the significance of which managed to slip by me. I don't mean to sound sexist. There have been gripping films made strictly from a woman's point of view -- I'll mention "Rebecca" in passing -- but this one meanders all over the place with no resolution.
It's possible that, limited by my own hard wiring, my heuristic apparatus had its shoelaces tied together in this instance. If so, my apologies. I notice quite a few good reviews elsewhere, so if I didn't get it -- and I didn't -- maybe it's my own fault.