I Want You

This movie, first of all, is not for amateur moviefans. The only people who will probably enjoy this movie are the ones who have seen a great many and wide range of films. It is for the open minded and analytical. Why? Because, this movie is virtually left blank for the audience to fill in. The acting is superb, Rachel Weisz and Alessandro Nivola are very talented, and are justly fit for the role. About 70% of the dialogue was improvised, so that should tell you something. Although there are sometimes too many holes in the plot and not enough information given, the movie, i believe, is pulled off wonderfully. It is a very open movie, and there are no reassurances. The audience will probably find themselves playing psychologist to the deep, rich characters that develop as the short movie progresses. The characters and the whole openness of the movie is what appealed to me. I Want You is very underrated, and people should give this movie a second try. Yeah, there is some explicit sex and voyeurism going on, but that is one of the movie's great central themes. The focus is very apparent from the beginning, and the beautiful thing that sets it off is mood. The color tones used, in mellow bluish and yellowish color, the melancholy and often creepy music... and the locale add to it. The movie is almost like The Virgin Suicides in mood, except much, much darker, with a darker, creepier story as well. It seems throughout the entire movie that the characters are sort of lost in this sort of moody limbo that Michael Winterbottom creates... and you get lost as well.

I really liked this movie. I can't quite figure out why, however. It's not quite the psychological thrill that it was perhaps intended to be (we never really get into the head of Martin, a man obsessed with his old love, which most people think is what the film is supposed to be about), and the relationship between Helen and Honda never really becomes a focal point, but like City of Lost Children, it gains a lot of points by simply being a unique viewing experience.

The relationship that Honda has with Smokey (his sister) and Helen are realistic and almost heart warming. It would have been a more enjoyable movie if it simply focused on the trio, but the movie is very intelligent and thought provoking as it is.

This was an interesting film with some very quirky characters.

Honda (Luka Petrusic) is a tall, thin 14-year-old boy who usually went everywhere at kind of a gallop, and is a mute. He lives in a house on the beach with his sister named Smokey(Labina Mitevska)--he also has a little hideaway in an old boat that has washed up on the beach.

Honda has a rather strange hobby of listening constantly to other people's conversations and other activities, and recording them.

Honda can even record people in a car not too distant from where he is, and he even has mobile equipment.

One day Honda runs into a beautiful young woman named Helen(Rachel Weisz), quite literally. After making her acquaintance, Honda and her become friends.

A young man named Martin,(Alessandro Nivola)out of prison and on parole, with whom Helen was previously involved, is stalking her.

Smokey, a sultry nightclub singer, who has a very unusual hairstyle, upon meeting Martin, becomes very interested in him.

All four of these people have some psychological issues. Helen - has some obvious sexual problems Martin- is a stalker Smokey- is going to bed with every man she encounters. And Honda with his muteness,eavesdropping and obsession with Helen is also in need of Dr. Freud.

We discover as the film progresses, why Honda is mute and what transpired between Martin and Helen in the past.

How this all concludes was quite surprising and unexpected to me.

8 stars

The topics touched on in this film include suicide, patricide, pedophilia, sexual obsession and murder. With a running time of just 87 min. and a large dose of nudity, it is amazing just how boring this film is. We are to believe that it is a cross between a 1950s English kitchen sink drama and an erotic thriller. Even though there are large gaps revealed to us in the characters' motivation, there is enough shown as the make them as one dimensional as a paper cut-out. Rachel Weisz's two nude scenes might be considered courageous in another film; but with so much gratuitous nudity preceding it, it loses it's impact. If you want to see Rachel Weisz naked and have a fast forward button, then rent this film. Otherwise stay away. It is incredibly pretentious and boring.

I agree with most of the other reviewers comments, but the viewer should know that this is not mainstream stuff, it's alternative, sort of like "High Art". If you like standard slick Hollywood stuff, this won't be your bag. Scenes change quickly, and at other times dawdle over a mood. The sex is alternative too, no standard love here. The acting is adequate, and the cinamatography is rural grundge UK, nothing pretty, not one nice English garden anywhere, mostly mud and weeds. If you've got broad tastes, give it a try. -Bob