THE LOSS OF SEXUAL INNOCENCE A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1999 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): ***
Writer and director Mike Figgis is best known for his award winning ode to the joys of alcoholism and suicide, LEAVING LAS VEGAS. This time he's back with a semi-autobiographical movie called THE LOSS OF SEXUAL INNOCENCE.
Most viewers, including this seasoned one, will be at a loss to say precisely what the picture is about and what Figgis is trying to say with it. The story is bafflingly frustrating yet beautifully intriguing and unabashedly sexual. Think of it as a mysterious, erotic tone poem for thinking adults.
But be forewarned. Many members of the audience are likely to be scratching their heads at the end, asking themselves, "What was that all about?"
Told in overlaying stories that flash forward and back, the stories are purposefully oblique. Containing few audible words, the film's sparse dialog is generally heard, if at all, in whispers or through obstacles such as glass or fire. Figgis wants the images and his sublime music to carry the picture.
Nic, played as an adult with a forceful presence by Julian Sands, is the central character. We see his childhood at various ages in flashbacks. One of these shows Nic as a significantly obese young teen. Since Sands is tall and athletic, this casting of the excessively plump boy was a particularly bad choice.
Anther related story has to do with grown twins (Saffron Burrows) who were separated at birth and who meet each other in an airport. The best part of this story is a long and absolutely adorable sequence of newly born twins as they stretch and greet the world.
The third story is an unusual Adam (Femi Ogumbanjo) and Eve (Hanne Klintoe) fable set in a Garden of Eden. In a movie charged with eroticism, these sequences are the most playfully sexual. One scene has Adam and Eve playing something akin to the kid's game of doctor as they explore each other's bodies. In a movie that clearly should have been rated NC-17, they are shown in full frontal-nudity as they observe each other standing and urinating. This story contains the most nudity this side of a porn flick.
The most controversial scene in the movie is the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. Using a loud and shrill version of Beethoven's Ode to Joy, Figgis makes the purge take on a Naziesque feel as the once innocent young lovers are chased by hidden boogiemen with flashlights.
The various stories are interrelated in ways imaginable and unimaginable. The movie is best savored when you turn brain off and treat the movie as a completely sensory experience.
The picture is at its most satisfying in its sexual escapades. Besides the aforementioned Biblical references, two other sexual scenes stand out.
One, starring Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as the 18-year-old Nic, takes place in the living room of Nic's date. As they kiss and he tries without much success to escalate the activities, they are ever on their guard, lest they wake her father. This funny and charming scene is one that most of us have experienced before, and Figgis's staging is convincingly natural.
Another erotic episode takes place in the kitchen after the grown Nic and his wife have put their young boy to bed. As she cuts carrots, he begins to seduce her from behind. We observe their lovemaking like voyeurs through the kitchen window. Again, Figgis's staging is dead-on, and their passion has a visceral intensity.
Confusingly mesmerizing and handsomely filmed, the movie defies deconstruction but speaks to you through its subliminal messages. When you leave, you're more likely to feel the movie in your subconscious than to think about it directly. Fight the urge to understand it. Just enjoy it.
THE LOSS OF SEXUAL INNOCENCE runs 1:41. It is rated R for strong sexual content, full-frontal nudity, violence and profanity. Consider the movie NC-17 and for adults.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
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