Erosion

I saw this movie with a friend at a benefit screening in LA a few months ago, and for days after the screening I was still thinking about it. The acting is superb, especially the lead actor who plays the role of GABE. I saw a lot of myself in that character, and that's what this movie does, it makes you think about yourself and your life whether you want to or not. The scenes of the failing marriage between the lead actress and her husband are painful to watch because of their realism. But the film isn't just a pure drama, the sex scenes and game playing are erotic and dangerous, without being graphic. The entire production is very original from beginning to end and is really what independent films are supposed to be about. This is one of the movies that's an experience that can enlighten. I encourage anyone to see it for themselves when it gets released to theaters.

I saw this movie without knowing what to expect. But from the beginning to the end, the movie grabs your attention and never lets go.It does so with an engrossing story line and gripping eroticism.In my opinion, this is truly one of the best original stories I have ever seen.

The acting in the film is great. All the actors are natural and believable. Emmanuel Xuereb, with the right amount of 5 o'clock shadow and sunken cheeks, is the perfect Gabe. He is both sad and so so kinky at the same time. I felt like I really cared about Gabe during the film. His pain seems to reach out from the movie screen and grabs my heart. And everyone can relate to Irene; the slightly bored working woman who desires some adventure. It is the kind of connection that makes this movie special.

I watched this with my boyfriend and he loved it as well. I recommend this movie whole heartedly

Once upon a time a film would tell you a story. If something in the story was extremely sordid, bloody or harrowing the director would miss this part out whilst at the same time allowing you to work out what was happening or had happened through sound or consequence or symbolism. This allowed a far wider audience to see films with really quite important messages.

Here we have the opposite method. Put together the saddest, most painful or just dull aspects of a film that would once have been tastefully left out, and challenge the audience to start trying to imagine the story. We find we can do it that way, being the imaginative creatures we are and having done the work we're pretty much told anyway gradually, but I for one found I didn't really want to. This film made me think... It made me think I'd rather be sat in front of Lethal Weapon. Now that is not good.

I was very glad to have the opportunity to watch this independent film at the Brooklyn International Film Festival.

The film was powerful and well made and the acting was excellent. It's an unexpected and unusual story portraying some very powerful emotions. I look forward to seeing it again and maybe can then catch many things that the director/writer carefully arranged and I missed the first time.

I would recommend it to everyone who enjoys a good film of gripping story lines and I also recommend the director's earlier film: Dreamers, it's touching in a very different way.

In Los Angeles, Irene (Charis Michelsen) works at an advertising agency and lives a boring, loveless and sexually unsatisfying marriage with her husband Carl (Lee Holmes). When she meets the mysterious stranger Gabe (Emmanuel Xuereb), they have an erotic love affair breaking into houses of strangers and stealing their lives for a moment. Both are trying to escape from their pasts with a game that pushes them to the limit of their relationship. But reality is there and can not be forgotten.

"Erosion" is a dramatic "unerotic"-thriller about infidelity of a sexually unsatisfied woman with a promising beginning but a boring development and conclusion. One meaning of erosion is "a gradual decline of something"; in this case, of the morality of the lead character Irene. The plot keeps sexual tension but goes nowhere with the non- explicit game of the lovers. The director Ann Lu is not bold enough and in the end, "Erosion" is neither a drama or romance nor an erotic thriller. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Desejo Selvagem" ("Wild Desire")