MonsterPerfect
Good idea lost in the noise
DipitySkillful
an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.
BelSports
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Yash Wade
Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.
KentaroK
It is difficult to discuss this movie without spoilers, so if you are a mature human being, who is not offended by raw sexuality, then go watch this movie first, then come back to read this review.Okay, so, the movie deserves a perfect score. Not because of its high production values, although they are fairly high, but because it does what movies are supposed to do: engage, entertain, and even provoke the expression of thought.The story-line serves to provide a unique view on relationships, freedom, and sexuality which is refreshingly free of "political" rhetoric, "correct" or not. Instead, it invites you to live life more fully, more freely, and to choose for yourself how to do this.It also shows that patience and time are needed to grow into your own maturity, apart from the conventions which may have been imposed in the past.The main message is: how to live without compromise, even if in the past, you had to compromise a lot.Of course, that is just my opinion, you are free to come to your own conclusions... and I expect, that the more people that watch it, the more opinions will be fostered.10/10, A++, an awesome movie. Also, watch until the very end, they are mid-credit scenes and end-credit dialogue.
SnoopyStyle
Valére is very close to her grandmother Marie Tasso (Geraldine Chaplin). She struggles to find love ever since losing her virginity at 15. She writes all of her sexual experiences in a diary. She falls for Jaime but when she tells him about her pregnancy, he becomes unstable and rejects her. She is short of money and takes a job as a high class prostitute.This is an art house erotic movie but I don't get a sense of tension. She's basically a single woman looking for love. Then she takes the prostitution job for the cash. The character is missing the desperate sexual needs that the title suggests. It needs to heighten the danger. It's artsy nudity without much tension.
evening1
An erotic film about a sex addict should at least cast a woman with a sensuous body. Belen Fabra is unpleasantly boyish and lacks the curviness to be truly sexy.This movie's plot is a silly excuse for stringing together a dozen sex scenes. There are a few good lines in the film, but the conversation is generally trite and superficial, and neither Fabra nor her partners ever says anything interesting."You expected a cultured, interesting man with a pleasant conversation?" her madam taunts her at one point. Well, from my perspective the answer would be a resounding yes!Clearly the sex scenes are central to this film. After a while you may find yourself fast-forwarding to the next set of gyrations. As long as the emphasis was on intercourse, I wanted more variety and creativity. The rape scene was not necessary, and a total cop-out!Then the movie tries to go all deep on us by introducing a philosophical, quadriplegic john.It was novel to see a daughter of Charlie Chaplin (Geraldine) playing Belen's grandmother. However, her part was boringly written and she underscored her insipidness by knitting while she rambled. This movie is probably best suited to voyeurs with a high tolerance for cliché and repetition.
Robert J. Maxwell
This really belongs on the Lifetime Movie Network or someplace. Belen Fabra is the 27-year-old Valere whose only real friend is her withered grandmother, Geraldine Chaplin. At fifteen Valere has sex for the first time. She feels there's something going on but it leaves her empty. Curiosity leads her into the byways of sex. She falls in love with Jaime finally, who seems to adore her. Coincidentally, if you're finally going to love a man for the first time in your life and you're now in your twenties and want to settle down and have children and build a home (whatever that means), Jaime is your kind of guy. He's filthy rich. He drives a Jaguar.But it wasn't long after Valere yielded her virginity and began writing in her diary about how she really need love, that I could see where the movie was headed. After fruitlessly banging dozens of guys of varying temperaments and races and quirks, she finds Jaime and everything seems to be going along swimmingly. The future is bright.But we experienced movie viewers know that in a movie like this, tragedy is just around the corner. Alright, Jaime has a slight problem with premature ejaculation -- if two minutes is "premature" -- but he showers her with flowers and diamonds, and he moves her into an expensive new flat overlooking Barcelona and the Med beyond.Jaime is too perfect. So what's wrong with Jaime? He's not gay (although he may be bisexual for all we know). Is he a drug dealer? A mob member? Does he have a history of fraud? There has to be SOMETHING wrong with Jaime because that's the kind of movie this is! I won't reveal Jaime's secret.Anyway, Valere's search for the cosmos takes her into a high-end brothel where she meets yet more flawed men. Finally, after reviewing the serial tragedies of her life, she comes to the realization that true happiness lies in self acceptance. In Valere's case, this means living for the moment with sex as your most immediate and available instrument. The fact that this is where she started lies unaddressed. She marches off bravely into the rain, a big smile on her face, triumphant music swelling in the background.As an erotic movie, and choosing comparisons with almost identical plots, this falls somewhere between "Emmanuel" (which was funny) and "Bel de Jour" (which was pornography with class). Lots of nudity, none of it vulgar, and lots of simulated sex, ditto.It's all about a woman's search for self actualization through the achievement of perfect orgasms, physical and spiritual. My, how things have changed. Why, when I was a young feller, sparking a gal, I was the one doing the pursuing. Why, I remember having to walk one hundred and fifty miles each way through the snow to visit a gal -- barefoot! We young lads was always met at the door by the gal's father, who wanted to know, right off the bat, if our intentions towards his daughter was honorable. I got so tired of saying, "Yes, sir," that once, feeling real cheeky, I said, "Absolutely not." That's how I got this scar. No, no. The one down here by the Krause end bulbs.Overall, what the movie has is an abundance of Belen Fabra's not easily dismissible and nicely assembled nude figure. Other than that, it's a pretty tiresome bore. When Valere is making love with Jaime, she kept checking the clock to see how much longer the act would take. I found myself doing the same thing. I believe I know how Valere's physical being ends. Drawing on the logic of the plot, she finally achieves the most exquisite possible orgasm and, having nothing left to search for, she deliquesces, turns into a vapor, and vanishes into the ether.