The Voyeurs

Not only is "The Voyeurs" the kind of movie Steven Soderbergh makes, I also wish that he had made it. Michael Haneke, too. These auteurs would have found a style befitting of the material that would have made it seem plausible, that would have kept us engrossed, and that, hopefully, would not have required the ridiculous, jarring twists and turns that the movie ends on.

The young couple move into an apartment in Montreal with windows that look directly into an apartment across the street. The very first time they look, they watch the couple in that apartment have sex. They continue to watch, get turned on, and even go so far as planting a listening device.

The climactic twist isn't entirely predictable. I wasn't surprised. But still, Soderbergh or Haneke could have put more of a point on it. Here it was a bit "meh", as my generation likes to say.

I really think that the twists and turns that come after were put in as an afterthought when the director realised nobody was going to buy what he had sold up to that point. It almost feels like a consolation prize, as though he's saying, "I agree that sucked because I don't have the skill to do it the way Haneke would have... oh well, here's some extra tawdry garbage."

He should have just made an erotic thriller. This is more like "Sliver" than "Benny's Video" or even "The Girlfriend Experience". And an erotic thriller would have been more fun. The attempts at seriousness or social commentary come to nothing, and in the final act, are totally abandoned.

The story gets preposterous at the end, I feel like it had one too many twists, literally just one less at the end and it'll be fine by me. Everything else was done brilliantly, not to say it would have contended for movie of the year but for what it was trying to do, everything was good, the acting, the directing, casting, the pace of the movie was well put out. Which is why I'm confused with all the twists at the end, because the movie was interesting enough without them.

It's just very fictional, like a watt pad novel my friends used to love reading in high school. As a whole, feels like it was stuck in-between two minds, whether to make it an erotica or not. The illogical twists and the stand out sex scene made it feel like they were trying, but there wasn't enough of it to consider it a "skin flick"(lack of better words). I almost like it as a regular movie, too mediocre to make it a priority on your watch list yeah but still worth a watch. It just feels like an adult movie that didn't want to be explicit, which is why that Seb and Sydney Sweeney scene confused me, it's welcomed, just confusing.

Overall the movie was enjoyable. Production and cinematography looked great. All 4 leads did a very good job. The main couple was likable & believable and the 2nd couple were attractive enough that you could imagine people would be checking them out.

I also like the 'Eye' theme throughout. From the sublime opening credits, song choices, Pippa's job, to the scene when Pippa and Seb first meet we get a very artsy shot of just her eye, then his. It was all very well done.

There were a few things that occurred that I didn't see coming and I was very curious to see how it would play out. Also no spoilers, but I did actually like what I thought was going to be the main ending at the gallery. But then we got another 5-10 minute twist ending and that, IMO, let the film down a little bit. Sometimes less is more.

But overall a recommend.

I liked the overall tone, aesthetics, cast, acting, concept... But the ending was too much. The unreal twists have kind of broken the spell for me. I'd love to see this movie with a simpler more realistic third act.

'The Voyeurs' feels kind of like a 90's erotic thriller, albeit one on a much bigger budget. Maybe there's a little bit of homage to that long-departed era?

To the plot: A couple moves into a new apartment together and can look across the way into the next building where they see, on their first night, a couple having sex. It becomes a bit of an obsession from there (one that would have been averted if either apartment had had blinds!) and things quickly take a dark turn into a world of voyeurism and exhibitionism.

'The Voyeurs' is decent entertainment, with a few twists and turns...even though it stretches the bounds of credulity to somewhere close to breaking point.

Sydney Sweeney is the main star of this Amazon Studios production, and if your happen to like seeing her with little or no clothes on, this is a movie you should check out. There are multiple sex scenes.