Amores y sabores

It may be that you've better off reading the book first before watching this movie. Some reviewers have called it dull and slow moving, but I savored every incident and interaction between the characters; that may have been because I'd rehearsed them in the book – in this case I think the movie does a very good job of translating those incidents into an alternative reality that might just enhance what you already imagined via the printed word.

If you are a Sean Young fan you will not want to miss this – it is a much better role for her than most. You would never guess it by searching her movies by their viewer rating (93rd). I'd rank it in her top 10 best movies. It takes advantage of her comedic abilities, her dramatic abilities, and her quirkiness.

Another movie about men-women relationships. This time, Young plays a girl who sleeps with every man she finds in order to get experience ("experience will lead her to understanding", she expects). So, I spent 90 minutes, with a very sad (not to say boring) girl, with absolutely no emotions in her face (and nowhere else).

The movie is really slow, and the message seems to be lost. I insist, perhaps with an actress actually reflecting any feeling at all, it would have been an interesting story, as it reverts the men's typical role into a woman. The drunken guy character seems to be pointless, and has no explanation at all.

So, we all ended up as empty as we started...

Well, they say nymphomania leaves you unsatisfied. I don't know if Stella James (Sean Young) qualifies as a clinical nymphomaniac, but she certainly is in to sexual relations with men. She's still exploring, trying to find "more data" so she can see what she wants from life and the men in it, though it seems like at her age she should have a pretty good idea by now. (I can't agree, however, with anyone who says Young is too old for the role. If she is, we should all age so nicely.) For the most part this film left me cold, though it's by no means the worst of its type you'll ever see. And unlike the recent 'Eyes Wide Shut,' at least something happens in this one.

"Men" is no blockbuster Hollywood film. Instead it's a character drama that revolves around Stella (Sean Young), a budding chef who likes cooking things up with men as much a she likes cooking up souffles. During the course of the film she beds a guy she sees through a shop window, the owner of the restaurant where she works, a fat drunk from Alabama and a spacy photographer (if that isn't redundant.) What's amazing is that through all this, you like her and respect her as a decent person, aided by Young's trademark off-center style. It's not for everyone, but if you like characters better than car crashes, give it a go.

Here's one of those movies that pretends to have something to say, and tries to disguise the fact that it's utterly banal by centering on sexuality. The lead character is played by Sean Young, the actress's slight wackiness gives the character her only spark. Certainly the writing is poor and the plot development virtually nonexistent. Stella is a chef who lives with a young rich alcoholic, who has a tendency to speak in artsty semi poetic phrases. She has sex with strangers for the ostensible purpose of gathering information about men. One problem is that she never seems to learn anything, nor does she seem to be particularly enjoying herself, and the men she ends up with don't seem to have much to tell her in any event. Strangely, as much spouting as Stella does about "this is who I am" and "knowing what she wants", when she is asked about being "a slut" by a friend, the first words out of her mouth are "what about men?" and justifying herself by the way men act, or rather are portrayed to act "in the movies". We're not really given any clue as to what's really going on in the movie, and because of the poor writing, aren't really given a reason to care.

If you're looking for character driven film making, I'd suggest looking elsewhere.