Married/Unmarried

This is a unique film. I cannot compare it to anything I have seen before. The director's stark words and powerful images leave an indelible mark. The acting is excellent and shows true courage as there is much nudity and sexual abuse. Mark Ryder's music complements the disturbing images superbly and shows that he is one of the very best in the business. This is a film to see.

I had not heard of this film until recently airing my grievances about the inept and much-lauded 'Closer', but was recommended to it by a girlfriend who strangely described it as 'offensively unforgettable'. Structured similarly to its feeble counterpart, we follow two partner-swapping couples who confess their (in)fidelity explicitly and coldly. A recently married wife is gripped by jealousy when himbo husband sees an ex-girlfriend on TV, while couple number two exhume a submissive side of role-playing with only one willing participant.

The writer/director - known only as Noli - refuses to compromise on the emotional darkness, overloading each set-piece with ear-bleeding conversation that is shockingly provocative if at times a little pretentious. It is very easy to switch off and become immune to the onslaught, but you are drawn 'closer' to each character's world of deeply-rooted sexual anxiety and insecurity. And most compelling is the recognition of some these grotesque inner feelings.

Visually, it is a knockout. Narratively, it drags, but constantly surprises and intrigues. Artistically, it puts 'Closer' to shame with its darker version of a darker truth.

What sort of person would.- a - make this type of movie? b - like this type of movie?

Pretentious, vile crap. Don't bother.

There are scenes in this film that make your jaw drop. Not by effects or plot twists, but by words. Some of the dialogue and interchanges between the four protagonists of this wordy and questionably disfunctional film are as raw as anything I've heard on celluloid. Writer/director Noli attacks the senses via your ears and offers an anti-antidote with sugar-coated visuals that make the nastiness seem even more harrowing. The story is nothing new, two couples talk sex, indulge in quite a lot of it, and there are no happy families, but the relentless commitment to denouncing love and fidelity makes this uncomfortable yet compelling viewing. Overlong with little reward but contemplation of your own relationships in the bleakest of sense, this remains a searing autopsy on marriage and monogamy. Great acting throughout, especially from the women who suffer the verbal onslaught with towering performances. Heartstopping.

A simplistic melding of Ingmar Bergman, Eugene O'Neill, and Radley Metzger by a 16 year old devoted to Japanese animé would bring forth a better script than this pseudo artsy piece of junk.

A major problem with this film, which runs 86 minutes, is that it is 85 minutes too long. It is true that both Gina Bellman's and Kristen McMenamy's nipples are very pretty. But that they are not enough to sustain this poor man's Peter Greenway is readily apparent.

Derivative. Pedantic. Artless. What more can you say about such a dreary film. What it lacks in originality it makes up in...no, it doesn't make up in anything.

If you enjoy good cinema, you won't enjoy this.