Erosion

If you don't like to be spoon fed a story and instead, enjoy piecing the story together yourself, you will take great pleasure in a film like EROSION.

I saw the film at the Brooklyn International Film Festival. It opens in the middle of the story without the traditional set up. It threw me off a little at first because I didn't know anything about the characters or their conflicts or relationships. Nevertheless, after about 10 minutes, I realized why the story was told this way. Without an upfront setup, I as an audience really got to use my instinct to follow the characters, to feel their pleasure and pain, and to experience what they're going through, without passing on judgments, making assumptions, or knowing where I'm going as a participant. My favorite scene is the costume shop scene where Gabe, the lead character, delivers his monologue on his philosophy of life and the rules of Erosion. That's when I really felt the emotional connection with the character and started to really appreciate the director's choice of storytelling.

This film demands the audience's full attention, as well as participation. If you invest enough of your time and attention following the story, the reward is definitely memorable.

I'm not really into artsy films with disjointed stories and long symbolic passages I'm supposed to mull over. The description on the DVD package made it sound like it was going to be much more exciting and sexy than it was. I thought the character progression for the woman was too abrupt. It was just too much of a string of individual scenes for me.

For some reason, as they were breaking into the costume shop the screen turned black and I thought my DVD player had stopped but the time counter was still moving. I fast-forwarded through more black, all of a sudden color bars flashed on and the scene began again but a few seconds back from where it was when it went black. Looked like a bad editing job. Yet another disappointing rental for me.

I saw this film and was blown away at how truthful the love scenes felt. The acting (especially Charis Michelsen) is totally convincing from beginning to end. Give it 5 minutes at the beginning and the payoff is one that you'll never forget.

It's very erotic without being graphic or lewd. It sets up simple situations between the main characters that completely draw you into their world of trysts in other peoples' homes and makes you feel nervous like someone might walk in and catch you in the midst of doing something taboo.

I loved it and hope that Ann Lu continues to make more films like this one.

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")

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.