Desejo Você

This movie, first of all, is not for amateur moviefans. The only people who will probably enjoy this movie are the ones who have seen a great many and wide range of films. It is for the open minded and analytical. Why? Because, this movie is virtually left blank for the audience to fill in. The acting is superb, Rachel Weisz and Alessandro Nivola are very talented, and are justly fit for the role. About 70% of the dialogue was improvised, so that should tell you something. Although there are sometimes too many holes in the plot and not enough information given, the movie, i believe, is pulled off wonderfully. It is a very open movie, and there are no reassurances. The audience will probably find themselves playing psychologist to the deep, rich characters that develop as the short movie progresses. The characters and the whole openness of the movie is what appealed to me. I Want You is very underrated, and people should give this movie a second try. Yeah, there is some explicit sex and voyeurism going on, but that is one of the movie's great central themes. The focus is very apparent from the beginning, and the beautiful thing that sets it off is mood. The color tones used, in mellow bluish and yellowish color, the melancholy and often creepy music... and the locale add to it. The movie is almost like The Virgin Suicides in mood, except much, much darker, with a darker, creepier story as well. It seems throughout the entire movie that the characters are sort of lost in this sort of moody limbo that Michael Winterbottom creates... and you get lost as well.

I agree with most of the other reviewers comments, but the viewer should know that this is not mainstream stuff, it's alternative, sort of like "High Art". If you like standard slick Hollywood stuff, this won't be your bag. Scenes change quickly, and at other times dawdle over a mood. The sex is alternative too, no standard love here. The acting is adequate, and the cinamatography is rural grundge UK, nothing pretty, not one nice English garden anywhere, mostly mud and weeds. If you've got broad tastes, give it a try. -Bob

One of the best movies I have seen this year. Michael Winterbottom proves to be a truly versatile director with this film about love, loneliness, sorrow and obsession in an English coastal town. The use of Elvis Costello's song "I want you" as a theme throughout the film is superb. It leaves you with a strange and yearning sensation that will last for days. The cinematography is so very good, thanks to Kieslowskis photographer Zlavomir Idziak who also filmed "Gattaca" creating a similar visual style. Wonderful yellow, green and blue renders a supernatural, poetic feel to the characters as well as the town. You watch with the feeling that anything can happen, and it does.

The casting of this movie is almost perfect. Rachel Weisz is equally true as the both innocent and dangerous Helen as she was in "The Mummy" playing a librarian with vigour, looks and brains. I predict hers to be a great career. Make way, Kate Winslet and Helena Bonham-Carter! Alessandro Nivola as Martin is just as persuasive. He is scary, touching, pathetic and assertive all at the same time, consumed by an obsession with Helen fuelled by eight years in jail.

The only thing that bothers me about this movie is the way it abandons the mute boy and his sister's story to concentrate on Helen and Martin. However, this is a minor detail in a movie that often bears visual reminders of Derek Jarman at his very best. The very self-conscious references to "Romeo is bleeding" and "Red rock west" will probably ensure a similar cult-following before long.

The topics touched on in this film include suicide, patricide, pedophilia, sexual obsession and murder. With a running time of just 87 min. and a large dose of nudity, it is amazing just how boring this film is. We are to believe that it is a cross between a 1950s English kitchen sink drama and an erotic thriller. Even though there are large gaps revealed to us in the characters' motivation, there is enough shown as the make them as one dimensional as a paper cut-out. Rachel Weisz's two nude scenes might be considered courageous in another film; but with so much gratuitous nudity preceding it, it loses it's impact. If you want to see Rachel Weisz naked and have a fast forward button, then rent this film. Otherwise stay away. It is incredibly pretentious and boring.

Director Michael Winterbottom doesn't make conventional British films. His work has the austere demeanour and unrestrictive sense of experimentation that we normally associate with the European aesthetic of filmmakers like Herzog, Kieslowski, Bergman, et al. This ideology is further illustrated by the film in question, with the director employing the esteemed cinematographer of Kieslowski's A Short Film About Killing (1987), Slavomir Idziak, to create the dark, noir-like underworld of disintegrating coastal beach huts and seedy promenades where these mysterious characters come to congregate. It's one of those films that puts atmosphere before everything else; a film in which the long pauses between dialog and the odd sideways glance of a character says more than an explanatory line of dialog ever could. If you have a problem with films of this nature - the kind that leaves questions and images lingering in the viewer's mind for weeks to follow - then this probably won't be the film for you.

The plot is, on first glance, a simple one; relying on a series of emotional triggers whilst also playing with the usual cinematic chronology to go backwards and forwards into an event from the past. However, as we further explore the films sub-textual ideologies and the shadowy morals of the central quartet of characters, we discover hidden depths that have more to do with perception, memory and perspective. Winterbottom sets up an idea that each character sees a particular event in a certain way, so that we end up with multiple viewpoints all jostling for our attention. The resulting plot becomes much more of a puzzle, as we are further immersed within the shocking incident that bookends the narrative. Added to this, we are also given a narrator who cannot be trusted, which in turn leads us into a series of twists which expose the characters true intentions. The ultimate pay off comes right out of nowhere and knocks us off our feet, as the director subverts everything that we've previously seen and turns it into an almost epiphany. It's one of the most satisfying pay offs to a crime thriller that I've seen in some time.

The photography of Idziak takes us into further labyrinthine realms that perfectly complement the seedy atmosphere and perpetual drive of lust and obsession, with the entire film relying on various colour filters that not only highlight the mood, but also act as a visual anchor to the characters and the emotional context of the moment. The music too is detailed and significant, with Winterbottom using a series of musical motifs to expressionistically represent the emotional underlining of the characters. In a film that relies on sound as such an integral component of the script this is expertly handled. The inclusion of Elvis Costello's eponymous anthem from which the film takes its title is totally relevant, and certainly adds a much-needed sense of abstract, fragmented reality to the self-contained world of the plot. The central performances only help to give the film an even greater sense of added depth, with the two youngsters Luka Petrusic and Lubina Mitevska complementing the more seasoned members of the cast perfectly. In the lead role of Helen, Rachel Weisz exudes a provocative, sexual energy, whilst Alesandro Nivola is a revelation as the broken-down Martin.

I Want You (1998) is, for me, one of the most striking and evocative cinematic works of the last decade. An example of British cinema pushed beyond the realms of kitchen-sink and ably demonstrating a sense of visual imagination rare for this kind of genre. This is an exception film for those who enjoy their thrillers with a dark underlining and a distinctly multi-dimensional edge.