Intimate Strangers
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Movie Reviews of Intimate Strangers
Movie Review: A few twists, but not enough
Summary: 3 Stars
The male lead here is pretty much expressionless throughout, and I grew weary. There's a dark undercurrent of violence that never explodes and leaves you awaiting something much darker that seems about to happen, but never does. The director strove for a lot of erotic tension, I suppose, but there really isn't much chemistry between the estranged wife and the tax accountant. I had a hard time even picturing him with his still-around ex who keeps coming back to taunt him while flaunting her new beefier beau. This is a typically French modern drama with minimal dialogue and many long pauses and looks. I liked it.Movie Review: interesting subject gets a not so interesting treatment...
Summary: 3 Stars
Intimate Strangers has some very good moments which compel you to watch more - particularly as the main character wrestles with the mystery of his strange guest.. yet the psychological interest is saddly so spread out and sparse that it is a little difficult to wade accross the entirety of this film.. Somehow you think that a mystery is being held back.. and yet when certain plot elements are revealed it comes as a gret let down..
Nevertheless, there is some fine acting in this movie and at times it truly does shine.. I would recommend it.. but at the same time caution against any high hopes..
Movie Review: hmm...yawn, yuck.
Summary: 2 Stars
There is a certain kind of movie in which the entire premise depends upon the characters not clearing up important miscommunications. "While You Were Sleeping" was a classic example, and I hated that movie. I've never had much love for Sandra Bullock, and I spent the last three-quarters of the movie (that is, most of it) sighing and grumbling "just TELL them!" but then, hey, there wouldn't be much left to make a movie about. Or there might be a more interesting movie about to be made. Either way, I'm all for it.
Intimate Strangers starts out that way, with a woman making a wrong turn and mistaking a tax attorney for a sex therapist. The good thing about this movie is that it doesn't try to sustain the miscommunicaton for very long. After two visits, she figures it out. The bad thing about this movie is that once she figures it out, the more interesting movie never really emerges. I suppose we're supposed to wonder about their relationship, why she keeps coming back, what he's thinking, etc. But it just looks to me like she's getting off by knowing he's fascinated, and he's too weak to do anything but be fascinated. She's the naked woman in front of the open window, and he's the voyeur in the opposite apartment. In fact, that literally happens in the movie, with a bit of variation. Yawn.
Yes, eventually she leaves her husband, and maybe we're supposed to believe he helped her decide to do so. But isn't her husband working harder and harder to make her leave? And yes, the movie ends by him finding her. Am I supposed to be happy for them, the exhibitionist and the voyeur, together at last? Yuck.
The French and Pedro Almodovar seem to like making movies about weird sex and sexual relationships. I don't find them fascinating; I find them mostly boring and vaguely distasteful. No more, thank you.
Movie Review: Identity Crisis!
Summary: 2 Stars
The two main characters are very difficult to understand, in terms of credibility. He is so passive, that her attraction to him is just not believable. She is so strange, and so disturbed, that her attraction to him seems strained and beyond understanding. Undoubtedly, there are many sad and lonely and strange people in the world, but in this movie these characteristics are taken to the extreme.
It is interesting to note how the real Psychiatrist is portrayed . . as a self-important, money grubbing incompetent . . perhaps his portryal is the truest, most credible part of the movie. All in all, the movie has an identity crisis where it does not identify with real people in real life.
Movie Review: Button-sized capsule review from my Archive
Summary: 2 Stars
Not enough. A little tale of a solitaire finance advisor and a crazy woman in the search of I don't know what. Did not fill me. It doesn't meant nothing. The shaky movements of the camera inspired only doubts about the reasons of the director. Jump cuts and strange framings of body parts, all the time shaking, and for what? Who knows... In the positive side, have some nice performances, but that are completely accessories to the minimal story.