The Transparent Woman

This movie opens with a couple in a bathroom. A man stands at the sink, towel around his waist, touching up his beard with a straight razor. His wife is in the shower, appearing to be in some private reverie as she bathes, director Domiziano Cristopharo capturing this act from all angles. This scene has little bearing on the story other than to establish that the woman is generously endowed and has a well-groomed pubic region. (It should be mentioned here that she's played by former adult movie star Roberta Gemma.) It also gives a clue that she's supposed to be blind, but chances are that detail won't be noticed as Cristopharo is more concerned with capturing the water cascading over her ample bosom.

The opening scene is also something of a misdirect, suggesting this is going to be little more than a spooky soft-core porn movie. If only that were so. After that thorough introduction of Gemma's bod and a cursory flash of her co-star Arian Levanael's butt, the couple -- Anna and Carlo -- move from the city to Carlo's childhood home in the country. While Carlo, a university professor (sure), is at work Anna tries to familiarize herself with her new surroundings with the aid of a phone app that audibly identifies items she photographs. Weird things begin to happen: the landline phones ring, but there is only static on the line when Anna picks up; she bumps into a figure that may or may not have been there; and there's a room that remains locked for some reason. And why is Carlo always getting up in the middle of the night?

Cristopharo is clearly aiming to make an atmospheric thriller with supernatural elements, but his movie can't quite overcome its "Skinemax" aesthetic. Though she's playing a professor's wife, Gemma's often costumed like she's appearing in one of her adult movies (I don't think women wear 6-inch spike heels in their leisure time as often as TV and movies want us to believe). There are a lot of bath and shower scenes to show off the leads' physical attributes, though, interestingly, not a whole lot of sex. The sex scenes we get -- one relatively explicit -- aren't particularly remarkable, which would be forgivable if "The Transparent Woman" otherwise had strong actors and solid script. As physically impressive as Gemma and Levanael are, they don't have the acting chops the story requires. Gemma is actually fairly convincing when she doesn't have to speak, but her line delivery has a third-grader-in-a-school-pageant quality. (Mitigating factor: the movie is in English but Italian is her native language.) Lavanael describes himself on Twitter as a "Yogi, Aerialist, 1000 RYT yoga teacher, photographer, life liver and gatekeeper to the temple of stars." Not included on that list is "actor," and there's a reason for that. As for the script, the dialogue is as stilted as Gemma and Lavanael's delivery of it.

Flawed though it is, I did find "The Transparent Woman" to be reasonably engaging, which is why I really wished it was better than it is. And when I gave up on it being a good movie, I began to hope it would be trashy fun -- there was still time for it to become spooky soft-core porn -- but was again let down. Those looking for an atmospheric thriller/ghost story would do better to instead watch Oz Perkins' "I Am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House." Those drawn to "The Transparent Woman"'s leads would do better to seek out the movies Gemma made under the name Roberta Missoni and/or follow Levanael on Instagram.

Arriving in a remote villa, a man and his blind wife try to acclimate to the new surroundings so he can be closer to work, but as she lives there alone during the day finds something off about the place and eventually comes to discover a terrifying secret that puts her life in danger.

As a straightforward erotic genre effort, there's a lot to like here. As expected given that and the background info on the creative crew, the films' copious sequences showing off the assets of its main star generate a fantastic amount of fine work allowing that to take place. From steamy showers designed to showcase the water falling off her body, walking around the house in ill-fitting clothing that lets everything fall out, or simply dressing down to the point of practically being naked for the most part, this aspect of the film comes off incredibly well with the later scenes involving their sexual activity coming to pass in rather overt means to ensure the film has plenty to enjoy in that regard. As well, the simple enough setup at play here comes off far better than expected. With the main character's blindness being a central point here involving her being aware that there's something wrong inside the house but being unable to do much about it, this brings about just as atmospheric a setup here as does the scenes of her roaming throughout the house trying to find something to find the source of a strange noise disturbing her. Once the initial setup gets put into place and we realize the true danger present, this leads into a highly enjoyable and tense finale where the real twist ending allows it to come off with a fine touch, giving this one a lot to like about it. There are some drawbacks to be had with this one. One of the biggest issues here is the films' rather stilted and overlong pace, where it feels much too long even at this eighty-minute running time. Far too much of this one is spent on the mundane day-to-day activities of her going through the house trying to figure out the layout of everything or just trying to relax from the stress of everything which works well enough on its own but is played at far too slow a speed to be as effective as it should. Had these scenes been given a bit more life or energy or even just played at a faster tempo while on-screen, the tension would be far more effective and the film feeling faster. As well, there's also the somewhat flawed storyline at play here where the concept of what's going on doesn't make much sense. The whole idea of moving to the house in the countryside where he's hiding a secret from her from the very beginning is completely glossed over until the very end where a bizarre explanation involving the truth about their wedding is revealed. Concerning a double-cross involving their supposed identity and a mysterious blackmailer that comes out of nowhere to try to make the whole situation come together just doesn't work and the whole thing just comes off as confusing and underwritten with the value here opting for visuals over the story. These are the flaws that end up holding this down.

Rated Unrated/R: Full Nudity, Graphic Language, Violence, and a sex scene.

Blind woman in peril in husband's childhood home, with supernatural elements. The script is lifeless and the male character delivers his lines as if simply reading from the page, without inflection or interpretation. A priest is so creepy it is hardly surprising the woman didn't take advantage to learn some history.

The story is.unconvincing, and I suspect the sex and nudity were crammed into the opening minutes in the hope audiences wouldn't notice the lack of substance.

Not recommended.