I'm almost 40, and this movie felt like a throwback to those B-movie steamy-thriller movies on late night TV in the early 00s.
B-movie thrillers get a bad rap in some circles. I judge them for what they are; low-budget and formulaic, but that doesn't mean that they can't be enjoyable. I also think some people find enjoyment in the formulaic nature of them, because they offer comfort through predictability, and a happy ending.
I think reviewers here are being overly harsh on this film, but everyone has their own taste.
I came across this film because my mother is a big fan of B-movie thrillers. I was heading out the door, and caught the dinner party scene and I liked what I saw. I loved the pacing of the scene, and being a single male I also like the look of Katie Reese, so I decided to watch it at a later date.
I'll review it by taking it for what it is; a B-movie PG-13 steamy-thriller. No point in complaining about it being formulaic. The goal is to give us enough scenes of tension and eroticism that it's entertaining and arousing.
Positives;
Christie Will Wolf is the director and writer and her strength for me was undoubtedly the steamy scenes. She's able to create a slow building tension towards erotic scenes with great cinematography. I would like to see her do a higher rated softcore movie.
Kate Reese is the lead (Hope), and she has a bright presence, and incredible body. She made her character likable, I think just due to her natural energy. (At this stage in her acting career I can't see her playing the lead in a mainstream movie or TV show, but I can see her in more B-tier steamy-thriller genre movies or TV series, whilst she strengthens her acting skills. For me her strengths are her bright energy and sensuality, no doubt due to her dancer background.)
Victor Alfieri plays a charming gentleman (James), he made his character deeply caring, whilst also being capable of being playfully dominant. A counter to the character of the toxic masculinity of Arnie.
Together Katie and Victor created slow and sensual steamy scenes together.
Gregg Weiner (Arnie) for me he was the standout actor, playing the menacing husband with high intensity. I thought his final speech was convincingly delivered.
The standout scene for me was the dinner party. The scene plays out interspersed with the images and music of the violinist's at dinner, I thought the pacing was great. The director clearly has talent to be able to create a scene like that.
The best parts of the movie, were - understandably - the main selling point of this movie; the steamy-scenes. It's a lifetime movie and PG-13 so this is very-softcore, but there is enough implied semi-nudity and foreplay to genuinely be arousing (unless someone has spent way to much time watching 'the hub'). Katie was at her best acting in these scenes, likely due to her dancing background where sensual couples performances are common.
A number of scenes were genuinely tense.
The sets looked gorgeous.
I loved the soundtrack.
Negatives:
At times I felt that the the dialog was really unrealistic, sometimes people speak far to formally and logically (e.g. Hope talking to Arnie in the hospital "Further... in lieu of...", or when Hope was talking to the cop in her apartment "...with respect to...", way too formal for the emotion of the situation). When this happened it was distracting, and took me out of the movie. It was as if Christie Will Wolf had put parts of her script through an AI grammar checker, and the AI had rearranged the sentences to be formally correct but soulless.
A large part of what I also think let the movie down were any of the dialogue scenes where Hope wasn't interacting with James or Arnie. I think that Hope's character was at her best when acting with James, in terms of dialogue and Katie's acting, but I think her Hope's interactions with others struggled due to the dialogue and without Katie being bolstered by Victor's presence which seemed to have brought out the best in here.
Conclusion:
I gave it a 5 out of 10 because while I think the film has some great scenes, outside of those scenes the dialogue and acting took me out of the movie.
My advice is to enjoy it on an evening when you are in the mood for a very-softcore steamy-thriller that you can switch your brain off and enjoy.
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Why I wrote this review:
I was motivated to write this review to give encouragement and visibility to movies that portray sexuality in a more sensual way. We have an overwhelming amount of 'hardcore' portrayals of sexuality even in mainstream movies (e.g. 365 days and Fifty Shades of Grey). Watching old late night softcore movies from the 90s and early 00s shows sexuality portrayed as sensual and passionate. (I'm not saying that we as a society can't or shouldn't have aggressive or vulgar portrayals of sexuality. I'm just saying that I think media is 'out of balance' and needs more sensuality.)
Another reason why I like this movie was that the leading man was not an 'alpha male' or a bad-boy-turned-good (e.g. 365 days and Fifty Shades of Grey), he's a charming gentleman. I think we also need more portrayals of men like that, especially in today's climate where 'alpha males' with toxic masculinity have become very popular with young men on social media, and with women in movies (e.g. 365 Days and Fifty Shades of Grey).
