Act Naturally

With all the films in Hollywood that glorify nudity as sexual, it's nice to watch a film that has more in common with the innocent Doris Wishman movies of the 60s than modern day porn flicks. I just wish that the film itself was as interesting as its premise.

The story itself is quite low-key, and even boring at times given that stakes are quite low: Leah and Charlie want to sell the nudist resort, but the nudists want to keep it, so they try to convince them otherwise. They live fairly comfortable lives before they arrive, and the character arcs in which they go are quite contrived.

The characters are all quite diverse, and the actors are all convincing in their parts. Yet, this doesn't yield as much drama as one would think. Leah and Charlie are both quite different characters, yet the actresses don't seem to have much chemistry together, and despite their different philosophies on life, don't particularly have interesting scenes together.

In terms of technical specs, the cinematography and sound are satisfactory. It's an indie pic, so the low budget look of the film falls more in line with a hipster music video, which certainly aids the film's flat, laid-back feel. It's just a shame a location that is not typically seen much in film is not filmed to be more interesting.

Above all, I think what really weighs the film down it that it's not particularly funny even though it's a comedy. The lines are not zingers (even with a gay character!), and it's hard to really laugh at the same joke over and over again. They're naked! The girls are uncomfortable! But, in the end, it's hard to be completely mad at the film. It's tone is quite pleasant, and the performances are pretty good. Just don't expect anything really earth shattering, given the subject matter.

I guess the film makers did one thing right in putting their best effort into the first half of the film, so then at least some would watch the ending for the resolution despite it's decline in script, editing, pacing and sense.

To be fair, we did laugh at many scenes at the beginning, though some from the cringe element. The two sisters are oddly prudish even for two non-nudists. The cast appears to be a mix of actors and extras given speaking parts. Perhaps some agreed to frontal nudity and others didn't, because we get a mix of straightforward nudity and fan-dances with comically, strategically placed props.

However, that's not what really let's it down. The sound is choppy throughout, and the camera needlessly handheld at times. In the last act the script, not strong to begin with, falls apart, and actors seem to be ab libbing with the most banal non-communication. The editing goes to pot, especially with the multiple fade-to-black cuts during the not-sad-at-all funeral. The final insult is that the resolution of the story is not revealed to us - the argument and subsequent agreement between the sisters is without audio, with just...airplane noises over the top? WHY? Was the audio not useable? Why not reshoot? Was the script so lame that it was deemed unworthy of inclusion? Again, reshoot, please! It couldn't have been expensive to shoot - two girls and a car on the side of a country road.

I don't know. Hopefully it was a learning experience for everyone involved.

First it must be said that nobody working in/on this movie has ever been to a nudist resort. None of the characters or situations will be found at one. Plus if only 8 people lived & worked at one, it would have been shut down a long time ago. The story & plot are garbage. Not only not representing the nudist lifestyle or resort. Not representing real people. Worse there was one laugh and very little drama. Should have spent more than five minutes writing the script. The cinematography gets a huge fail. At times the camera is shaking so bad I was getting nauseous! They do sell tripods & minopods to avoid this. Audio was not a total fail but very inconsistent. The acting ranged from just okay to totally unbelievable. Maybe they were embarrassed to speak the often silly nonsensical lines. If you are watching for the nudity, there are plenty of better movie choices as well. While some scenes appear staged for brief glimpses of breasts & butts other scenes they are strategically blocked. I get the feeling they couldn't decide what kind of movie they were making so tried several directions at once. Fail!

As a practicing nudist, I was interested in this and when it came to "On Demand", I bought it. However.....the film had a lot of things just, well, wrong with it.

It is extremely rare that someone is shamed into disrobing at any nudist facility. Oh it happens, but it's usually an "at your own pace" situation. So, ladies, if someone asks to a nudist or clothing optional gathering, you likely won't be pressured.

Second, there was a heavy emphasis on drinking. Yes, at some nudist parks the booze flows freely. And at others, it doesn't. Sex? Normally not part of a first-time visitors' experience, so guys, don't go to a nudist park thinking that the women lay down and bang.

Third, this depicted a lot of young adults. Most nudist resorts in the 21st century are sadly occupied by older adults. Nudism is trying to change that in order to survive.

Fourth, the acting. Rob Roy Fitzgerald and Liz Lytle stood out with some talent, but the rest of the crew - uh, nice try. But it did depict some of the fun aspects of nudism.

I can understand the lack of frontal nudity owing to union regulations.

So if you find this "in the discount rack" or want to get a download, it's probably worth it to satsify curiousity but no, it's not a masterpiece nor a totally accurate depiction of North American nudism.

Like several other reviewers I found it refreshingly pleasant to see a film which has people nude for none sexual reasons and generally a reasonably enjoyable film to watch. However despite several favourable comments on the extras portion of the DVD from people who are reputedly real nudists I didn't really feel that it portrayed nudism very accurately. Firstly nudism is usually promoted as a family activity, in this film all the nudists appeared to be single, an almost complete lack of any families, only in the final few seconds were a couple briefly seen with kids in there arms, maybe they were real members of the club used in the film. My other reason for deleting points out of ten is the the foul language frequently used by the two women who were the central characters, this was totally unnecessary, if it wasn't for that I would have said it was a movie the whole family young and old alike could have enjoyed. In some ways the movie parodied the nudies from the 50's and 60's where there always seemed to be some object which just happened to be in the right place to obscure the view, which seemed to be done more for comedy than anything.