Comparing the movie to the critic reviews is like talking about another film: this very true and provocative cinematique angle is nearly a threat to todays society, just because it is honest enough. Unlike what is written in the other user reviews, I think that the explicit sex scenes are NOT the main reason why this film has been chopped up by the critics, but they eventuallly add up to all its superficially called "negative points". Briefly:
1. The sex scenes: it is true that a sexually repressed society will eventually turn out being violent and its people being miserable. The film underlines the oxymoron of how we are "taught" to hypocritically "hide" our need for sex and love, as if it is something bad and anethical, whereas in the end, if openly cultivated, leads to self-fulfilment, joy and mental balance. And reduces hatred and violence.
2. The social point of view: The two leads are surrounded by poverty, social discrimination and injustice in what we think is our "modern equal world". And their relationship is indeed determined by those differences, as they both serve as representatives of two opposite social classes, the upper-class banker and the illegal immigrant. Poverty IS a reality and people ARE being exploited to death for others to consume and win millions. And the film cares to remind us that even if the two protagonists don't exist in reality, there are many many people who are like them.
3. The "we are the heroes" part: now this is a turning point in the film. Sadly enough, politics ARE a way of expressing power and greediness, and some countries/ people are the unlucky victims. The main lead, as a former banker, a former "master of the universe", approaches the most painful part of the movie, the realisation that our political leads may not be so "saint" at all, that our country may have erred, that wars are being provoked just for the profit, that a poor country's future may be a toy in the hands of those who are in power (financially and politcally), that people die for others to get richer etc... All those are issues we are trying to forget or neglect or doubt, and this film makes us look straight up to them, or at least it tries.
Some would rather look straight up to the provocative sex scenes, there is, though, i think, a natural coherency between all the issues addressed by the film (the sex, the politics, the freedom, the social critic) that lead up to a compact, intimate and philosophical end result.
P. S. Give it a try and watch it, with honesty and open mindedness. As all authentically non-Hollywood approaches, the characters in this film are not the great heroes we have to admire and immitate. We merely learn from them. Besides, for instance, I don't see why the sexual theme in "Vicky, Chrsistina, Barcelona" should be more justifiable, less shocking or "intellectual" enough to win an oscar and get plenty of praising critic reviews.
