Kelly + Victor

I wish IMDb would delve into the negatives as well as the positive number realms because its the only way to truthfully cover films like these honestly .

Acting was decent

story was weak girl meets boy girl likes is into kinky asphyxiation type of sex .Even though she's 90 lbs soaken wet and couldn't gag a maggot .

Meaningless lives and meangingless sex equal a meaningless movie with no point or meaning 1-10 not worth your money or the time to think about or give meaning to it .You want to thought provoking material read a book .Skip this movie at any and all costs i made it 50 mins into the film and shut it off because i felt myself growing dumber by the second .Yes it was one of those films

Interesting, fairly original central plot, but there is a large degree of inevitability about the conclusion. The central relationship in the movie is reasonably interesting and not at all the average male-female relationship. However, this gives you a fair indication of how it is going to end. This, and some other scenes.

This significantly reduces the impact of the final scene.

The plot is also a bit unfocused. Too many sub-plots that go nowhere. Too much drifting at times. More time should have been spent on the main characters and their relationship, and less on secondary characters and events.

Decent performances, however.

There was an MP in the UK some years ago who was found by the police hanging from the back of his kitchen door with an orange in his mouth and his trousers round his ankles. Auto-eroticism gone wrong that was, and you have to wonder if something similar is on the cards for "Victor" (Julian Morris) as he hooks up with "Kelly" (Antonia Campbell-Hughes). They are in the sack pretty much immediately after they meet, and she introduces him to a few hitherto unknown kinks. Not only does he get off on them, he starts to need them to orgasm at all - even on his own. With "Kelly" unable to discern what may or may not be an acceptable limit and his increasing addiction, you begin to wonder if their game is heading for disaster. It's been done on a fairly shoestring budget, by the looks of it, but the camera loves Morris and there's quite a compelling effort, especially as the film concludes, from Campbell-Hughes. There's some sex, but it's photographed harmlessly enough to give us the idea and not really the detail. Unfortunately, there's a lot of padding here, and by half way through when we've all got the message we could skip to the denouement swiftly, I reckon. It's really only got enough scope for a short feature, maybe 45 minutes tops, but is still a solid effort from auteur Kieran Evans though as he tackles a taboo subject in a fashion that's just about worth a watch.

"Kelly + Victor" is the story of a sadomasochistic relationship between a young couple who meet in a nightclub then go back to hers for sex. It's a thin little story tarted up with shots of nature and landscape between the bouts of not very pleasant passion. It's a film that shows real promise, (director Kieran Evans won a BAFTA for it), but is too concerned with softening the blow by making this into an 'art' movie complete with visit to an art gallery. I think it would have been a better picture had a more direct approach been taken. Julian Morris is outstanding as Victor; he is a naturally physical performer who throws himself completely into the role. If Antonia Campbell-Huges is less impressive as Kelly it may be because her character never feels real. Her addiction to kinky sex feels to me like a scriptwriter's affectation. It's a bleak, grim little picture, very 21st century kitchen-sink and it made me long for the less explicit but more dramatically satisfying British films of the early 1960's.

I was interested in this because it was mostly shot locally. It's a slow burner with some really weak scenes along the way, but it builds in masochistic tension quite impressively and has a well worked climax (smirk). Campbell-Hughes doesn't carry with her the normal type of sexual charisma that erotic films usually need. Instead she's got this subversive thing that keeps you on edge.

There's something 'everyman' about Julian Morris that makes you identify with him but he can occasionally border on the amateur in some of the weaker scenes.

A mixed but worthy addition to the UK indie scene.