Details from IMDB:
A high-powered CEO puts her career and family on the line when she begins a torrid affair with her much-younger intern.
- Director
- Writer
- Stars
Initial Thoughts:
I had heard about this movie, saw Nicole Kidman talk about it on the Graham Norton show. I’ve always liked Nicole Kidman and Antonio Banderas, and my wife saw the preview and was interested, so we went on her birthday to see it. I was always interested, Nicole Kidman is good is almost everything she does!
Main Points:
So I’ll just state the obvious, this is an erotic thriller and while there isn’t much nudity, there is a lot sex, a lot of sexual tension and lots of talking about BDSM, relationships, and of coarse a lot of coarse language. This movie is certainly ages 19+, please don’t let your kids see this, or possibly your parents, I saw a senior couple get up and leave about an hour into the movie! Not something I’ve seen in a few years for sure. You may have noticed from this blog that I’m fascinated and interested in sex, so I tend yo listen to books about and watch movies. BDSM has become popular since “50 Shades of Grey” (which I have never watched, and don’t plan to) and I’m always curious to see how it’s handled on screen (and yes that’s a pun 🙂 This movie gets a lot of the terms, behaviors and practices of BDSM correct, though I don’t like how Hollywood also has to throw in words like “disgusting” or have characters interested in it because of some past trauma but I guess we’re just not a point in society where 2 emotionally healthy people could enjoy BDSM onscreen, hopefully though it will be the case soon 🙂 It’s great to see a movie about sex, complicated relationships, kinks and BDSM from a woman’s perspective and that’s some progress in itself 🙂
Ok I’m off my soapbox, I think that Nicole Kidman is amazing in this movie, I really hope she wins an award, she is already starting to get nominated for them. Her character is complex, flawed, brilliant, driver, talented, the CEO of a huge company and at the end a much more emotionally healthy person. Antonio Banderas has a smaller role but also does a good job and does show some character growth. I think this movie does a great job of building up sexual, and regular, tension and shows that you don’t need a lot of nudity to show people in a sexual relationship, you imagination works just fine. The only issues I have with this movie is that ultimately there is not a lot of plot, it’s much more character focused and it’s, you guess it, a little on the long side. I think a good 10-15 could have been cut, as I believe is the case for most movies.
Final Thoughts:
Nicole Kidman is a like a fine wine, she just gets better with time. She’s the reason to see this movie, ok not the only reason. Anyone who is interested in BDSM should check this out as it does show some common activities, explains the difference between dominant and submissive well and other things like a safe word, consent and how a d/s relationship often works. I think it also is great to show a movie with a woman who is, especially at the end, in control of her sexuality and not ashamed of her kinks/desires. Despite all the things I enjoyed about this movie I can only give 7.5 out of 10, I’m doing a full point just for how good Nicole Kidman was. If you’re looking for a date movie that could lead to some fun conversations I’d highly recommend seeing this in theatres. As mentioned if you’re not comfortable with nudity and simulated sex onscreen don’t go, I’ll never understand why you’d see something just to be offended.