Suite 16

Let me say from the outset that Pete Postlethwaite is one of our best character actors and that Charlea Higson is a fine writer of skewed noir thrillers (read 'Getting Rid of Mister Kitchen' if you appreciate grim, black farce). But what the hell went wrong here? A blond g*t who couldn't act his way out of a wet Kleenex, characters who've stepped out of a bad student improvisation project and sex scenes as erotic as Spam that's been left in a warm place for three weeks. I think there's some statement about voyeurism, sexuality and control trying to slip out here, but I'm too dumbfounded by the abject crapness of the entire project to remember. Are we allowed to give minus points?

The whole point of antonie kamerling in suite 16 is eye candy. The character played by pete is obviously sexually repressed and finds the character played by Antonie extremely attractive yet he is unable to act upon it due to his physical deformaties. The woman only comes into it to make the character played by antonie jealous. antonie plays an excellent role in what could be called, at best, a bad movie. He was hired for his beauty and he used it to its full extent in the inadequate directing of this movie.

A wheelchair bound millionaire struggles with impotence. He catches the services of a beautiful and tough blond hustler named Chris. Chris is no more than a common thug and he is out on a lamb escaping a murder charge. Glover uses him to lure women so he can watch Chris fornicate with a barrage of willing women to pay for Chris' services.

This movie is rather slow and has corny dialogue. Kammerling's physical appeal with his chiseled beauty and glorious brawn carry the film so far. But Postelwaite's creepy control takes charge as we see him take advantage of Chris.

If you want to see some softcore sex with good looking people and an old voyeur in a wheelchair, this can be satisfying. For eye candy purposes this film is alright.

In this film of sexual manipulation and head games it quickly becomes clear that Chris, the beautiful hustler on the make is living a life totally out of control. When he first meets wheelchair-bound Glover, he has the upper hand. His physicality and his threats of violence can only take him so far though. As their relationship continues, Glover more and more becomes the one in control.

Many folks reviewing this movie seem to hate it and yet I found the dynamic between the two individuals and their ambiguous sexual orientation was interesting enough to carry the plot along to its eventual conclusion.

That dynamic and the eye candy provided by Antonie Kamerling was certainly enough to keep me interested until the end.

Director Dominique Deruddere is a much more interesting person that this mediocre movie leads you to believe. Other than this "thing", he made some of the greatest Belgian movies ever, like "Wait until Spring Bandini", "Hombres Complicados" and especially "Crazy Love". This latter one can easily compete with prestigious American movies when it comes to drama, cinematography and plot. For "Suite 16", Deruddere had the opportunity to work with a bigger budget and some important names here and I fear that's what caused him to deliver a seemly-unfinished film. Some good dialogues and interesting content can't prevent this film from being a tedious and uninteresting social portrait. The plot introduces a young crook (Antonie Kamerling) on the run for other villains and he ends up in the suite of the wheel-chaired manipulator Glover. At first, Glover appears to be a sad and frustrated impotent guy from whom Chris can easily take advantage of but it's actually the other way around…or something. There are absolutely no exciting moments in this film and the young Dutch actor Kamerling suffers way too much from his ego. The film is stuffed with sex sequences but they're not exactly interesting or meaningful (Glover constantly hires prostitutes to make Chris stay). Suite 16 is very boring and not at all controversial, although it obviously tries to be. I advise you to skip this one and go straight for some of the other film's on Deruddere's repertoire.