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20 reviews in total |
*
If Hitchcock were reanimated and saw Pulp Fiction,
Author: Dotacion from SoPas, CA, USA
14 January 2004
... the Crying Game, and a few other pieces of current day cinema, he just might come up with such a little gem.(No way man ! only Hispanos can speak that true)This work manages to lovingly captivate the audience which misses dear old Alfred. From the smartly nuanced opening credits, through the twists and turns of post-reveal story structure, to bringing the whole thing to a close using the ambivalent actions by *both* male leads- not masterful, but deft, and compelling. Nifty stuff.I can see Hollywood attempting a remake (a la Vanilla Sky) and completely bolloxing it up, too.
Erotic, but not so much as the title and cover art might have you think-the title should actually be translated as "Between the Legs," a sort of comment on what kind of trouble the libido can stir up.Confusing it wasn't, as a second viewing (well worth it) confirmed. Subtitles are adequate and a capacity for Spanish no necesita.
PS The "distasteful rape scene" mentioned in one comment baffles me and must have been a figment to that reviewer. The character was actually suffering what could be called a post traumatic stress flashback. It rang true to that character, and was necessary as the device to explain what really went on in the previous 01:50 of screen time. Held me right to the end.
Author: meitschi from Vienna, Austria
1 October 2001
When I read the title and a short description in a Budapest program magazine, I prepared for a darkly erotic love story. "Entre las piernas" did have such elements, of course, but still turned out to be something completely different.As soon as the (beautifully designed) titles started, it became evident for me that this film was going to be a hommage to Hitchcock an his films. The same everyday beginning that entails lots of unexpected turns; the same play with identity and culpability, the same insecure atmosphere where things happen to the characters that destroy their everyday world - even the music was Bernard Herrmann-style!
Of course, directing and camerawork were not at all on the same level than in Hitchcock's films, but the perfect screenplay was indeed. The actors were also great and seemed to like their roles. I didn't like Javier Bardem in "Before Night Falls" but here he was really cute... :)I would absolutely recommend this film to everyone who likes clever psychological thrillers and also to all people who love Hitchcock's films and are familiar with his work.
Author: hidalgo-4 from United States
9 July 2005
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Following in dialogue with the comments of the previous reviewer I will start saying that most films convey the prejudices of the society where they come from. As Bishonen has already mentioned, this film is quite homo-phobic, but you don't notice this until the end. Actually, it is difficult to put all the strings together until the end, and still, they don't all fit nicely. The tension of the drama is broken several times because the film appears to have been heavily edited thus missing a few important components.
Yet, probably because of the editing too the film presents just the best acted scenes. They are indeed very well done, with a play of characters that is a pleasure to watch. The movie is sexy without taking too much time showing physical bodies engaged in sex (the first scene is the longest one). The essence of the movie's sexuality is captured in the powerful sexual urges that the protagonists have trapped within themselves, making them their slaves, and the main appeal of the movie.
The thriller side of the movie was only good when it was linked with the issue of sexuality. Otherwise it was ordinary, probably because the scrip tried too hard to always hide the true identity of the killer, thus, giving little space for the observer to get deeply caught in the web of tensions.
An interesting thing about the movie's narrative is that a story-maker (I say maker because in addition to a story-writer, he also "made" stories) resulted smarter and more cunning than businessmen, sharp detectives and even the "evil" people who were trying to hurt him. He even appears as too "innocent" throughout the film. In most other films when someone is having too much fun and trying to get away with it, at the end such person pays with interests. In this film, however, the conclusion plays out differently.
I also felt betrayed at the end when I noticed the strong homophobic sentiment of the movie. It just shows how the Spanish society continues being so conservative. Like the prejudices behind this movie, the first negative reactions in Spain to the movie "Bad Education," where the main actors behave homosexually and bisexually, just serves to prove that a large number of people in Spain are still trapped by the sexual mores of the Catholic Church.
But besides the issue of homosexuality, the smoking like chimneys, and the fact that the thriller could have been made better, the movie is one of the best in its genre. I specially liked Victoria Abril's performance. In Abril, the movie took a thirty-something women and made her the sexual object and the central sexual figure of the narrative. This contrasts with Hollywood's productions in which most females playing such roles are teenagers, twenty-something, or extremely glamorous. I think this movie illustrates by contrast how the U.S. society is so obsessed with youth, to the detriment of older women in particular.
This film is very interesting for those who likes sexi-thrillers, Miss Abril reinforces herself as a super spanish star, and as usual, she fills the screen with a strong personality that communicates with the audience not only with a superb performance but with her eyes, voice, and as the film title calls, with her legs.It could be the best use for 4 bucks! (Standard ticket price in México)
Author: a-laly from United States
11 January 2008
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
I had to watch the film twice to make any sense of the mystery. So many loose ends, and the stories, within stories and so on, only managed to muddy the waters.So here is how I viewed it. Two people meet on a Monday in a sexual addiction support group. That night they proceed to have a mad sexual encounter in the back of a parked car in a parking lot which after a while the film reveals, has a dead body in the trunk. I got from the film, that Javier has already murdered the victim and stuffed him in the trunk and then goes to the support group to pick up an alibi as well as get lines for his scripts that he can no longer get from the phone sex encounters.
Here is where the film lost me. What was up with the AIDS infected taxi driver? He is supposed to have taken a packet from somebody for a large sum of money. Could it be that the script and the scrap book that the victim had was being taken out to another country, and that's why the police cannot find any script in their search of the house? The point of the police officer who killed his wife, was inserted as a morality play I think, so that in the end, the husband let's the wife go away without harming her. Ipanema is probably the airlines suggesting that the couple ran off to Brazil to start a new life.
The husband / policeman, inadvertently drops the vial containing the pubic hair he finds in his bathroom. That whole vial with the pubic hair thing completely escapes me. How did the hair get into his bathroom and what would that have proved.A thriller alright, but with a lot of loose ends that kept me guessing and confused.
Where to begin! I admit that I had to watch this movie several time in order catch all of its details and subtle nuances. The title goes to the motivation of the characters. Something that I heard in college, that "biology is fate," also refers to the title. Something the taxi taxi driver says at the beginning to Javier, implies as much. The movies' characters, major and minor, all have one crisis or another to confront. How they handle their particular situation, highlights their character. Some run from them, others confront them. Each has his or her own style. So much for the plot. The photography was great, the acting was very good, the dialogue was exceptional. The ending, and the scenes leading up to it, were just fine. The writers clearly had a point of view, and say it loud and clear. This movie is highly entertaining, and thought-provocative. I would not be surprised if Hollywood re-made this movie.
Author: DakKi from Santiago, Chile
19 October 1999
Oh yes. She has proved us once again that she is a godess. Not only can she act, but she (or/and her people) have the amazing ability to choose the films she acts in. This erotic thriller is one of a kind, a good smelling poutporri (or however you spell it) of the most popular spanish directors of the 90´s: Almodobar (All About My Mother, Live Flesh), Amenabar (Thesis, Open Your Eyes), etc.. etc.. etc... Go see it, if you like strong movies with great plot twists and good acting. Definately a winner. If I were a jury in a festival, it would´ve taken ALL the prizes.
What I liked about this picture: the cool camera-work (airport lounges have rarely been as attractive, and there are evocative scenes in toilets and bedrooms); the music, always urgent and involving even if it owes much to Bernard Herrman; the identity of the transsexual character is well integrated into the story, not an add-on (I thought of Jaye Davidson in The Crying Game).
What I didn't like: the red herrings in the story line, meant to throw us off the scent but only serving to annoy the viewer; the large number of characters that makes following the plot all the harder.What kept me watching was Victoria Abril, playing the detective's wife with a panache that made me regret she has not made more films we can see in North America.
Never mind the salacious title. There's not much simulated sex and no nudity at all. It's not a soft-core thriller. What it is, is nicely executed and confusing.It owes something to Hitchcock, from the credits, which resemble those of Saul Bass, to the lush orchestral score which borrows heavily from Bernard Herrmann, chiefly "Vertigo" and "Taxi Driver." I was half hoping for a lot of the disgusting gratuitous nudity that everyone complains about an it opens promisingly enough -- a group therapy meeting of "sex addicts" in which everyone has a different story. Among the group's member are Javier Bardem and Victoria Avril.
Avril's story is that, as a young girl, she helped a butcher tie the knot in his tie just before his wedding. He became excited and balled her three times in the back of the butcher shop. "Everything smelled of meat." Since then she's had one affair after another, even though she's married to a police officer, Carmelo Gomez. I forget what Bardem's story was but it couldn't have been as interesting.
Then all sorts of tsuris follows. I frankly was lost. Bardem has a problem with some kind of illegal tapes -- or something. The few clips we see don't look very illegal. One shows an ordinary boxing match. A dead body turns up in the trunk of an unused car, in the front seat of which Bardem and Avril have been spontaneously coupling, so we're told. (We don't see anything.)
Avril's husband, the cop, is trying to track down the murderer and, after discovering his wife's affair with Bardem, does all he can to pin it on Bardem. It leads to some tense moments.I don't think I'll describe the resolution. At least I understood it, I think. I still don't know exactly how or why it reaches the point it does, but I'm sure of one thing -- it does reach that point.
Bardem is pretty good. I'd only seen him as the cold-blooded hit man in "No Country For Old Men." In that essay, he spoke slowly with a slight gargle in his voice, his face expressionless, his hair combed slantwise over his forehead, his big dark eyes dominating his features. Here, he's a rather ordinary screenplay writer who speaks at a normal tempo and looks like anybody else. I was impressed by the difference in his approach to the two contrasting roles. It's what's meant by "range" in acting.
Victoria Avril is now middle aged, no longer the young lady of "Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down", but she's still beautifully and unwittingly sexy. She wears a semi-startled expression throughout, as if she were a frightened bird in a cage. It suits the role.There are still several points, some of them important, that I'm unclear on, but I've taken steps to correct this by enrolling in a therapy group that promises to promote viewer comprehension.
Author: onelar from Cincinnati, Ohio, US
4 August 2001
My advantage, I do not speak very much Spanish, and more than 80% of the dialogue went over my head... The acting of Abril, however, was so intense and comprehensive, the way her lips quivered, the "realness" of her unexpected "jerkiness" from time to time, and the scene in the "club" followed by the double entendre'd pretensiousness with her husband. It kept me interested for almost two hours. I may not have got it right, but there were multiple plot layers that "dovetailed" without the insulting forecasting which is generally evident in American movies. And, like I hinted, maybe my advantage was that I did a kind of "speed listen" instead of listening to every word. And, the male lead did an equally great job.Loved it tremendously. Hope it never gets English subtitles. I like what my imagination filled in for me
