Quote:
Originally Posted by _____V_____
For one, you have to look beyond the S&M portrayal on-screen and delve a bit into the background of both characters - their mentality, thinking, emotions, intelligence and fetishes.
What we have here, are two very complex characters who stand out in a crowd not because of their identities, but because of their unique personalities. The first 15-odd minutes give a perfect insight into the first character, and the last 20 show us the other side of the second character. Both of them on the brink of an emotional abyss, and looking to stretch/attach themselves to anything they can find solace in. Its a perfect take for any one of us in today's world, and to deny it would be like avoiding a mirror of sorts.
To dismiss the flick as just a controversial exotic parade would be unfair. Anyone who has an emotional side and even empathises with their movies' characters would realise this.
I guess this flick is not meant for the practically inclined ones. You need a sensitive side to your own personality to watch this one and appreciate it.
|
I have a deep empathy for Gyllenhaal's character, but certainly a very limited sense for Spader's. Needless to say both these characters have emotional issues, issues that the film would have us believe can be dealt with via a sado-masochistic sexual relationship. In fact Gyllenhaal's character comes to depend on this as a remedy for her emotional problems.
Spader's obsessive compulsions are not the least bit empathetic, he essentially at times mentally abuses a vulnerable, naive young women caught between a sudden sexual attraction and her own personal problems.
Anyway you look at this film, it portrays a obscenely unhealthy sexual relationship, between two people you genuinely need to sort through emotional issues that are ruining there lives. It tries to throw this particular fetish into the mix as an expression of unhealthy tendencies and have us believe it is an "OK" way to deal with such problems.
I certainly believe I have a sensitive side to my personality, and more then fleeting experience with both healthy and un-healthy BDSM relationships. It is certainly not lack of empathy but rather a greater understanding that the pain that depresses someone is such away can't be so frivolous attached to rough sexual exploits.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChronoGrl
The characters didn't seem real to me at all. It played out more like poorly-written erotic fiction from an author who fantasizes about being a sadomasochist, but has no idea what the lifestyle is actually like.
|
It really, really does.