Do women not enjoy this movie as much as men?

I am a female and I thoroughly enjoyed this film. While I will not spend my time typing about the exploration of the plot, symbolism, etc... (that would take FOREVER), I do believe that the female characters of this film (Cristina and Zoe) are powerful women in the sense that they have control over their own emotions and sexuality, as opposed to the male characters (Francis and Eric) who seem consumed by their obsessions with Cristina; they end up acting hastily and irrationally when it comes to what they will do just to be with her.

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I (female - 45+) really love this film and consider it among my Top 10 all-time favorites. I love the Leonard Cohen music, the Exotica and it's secrets, Mia K. and the rest of it. I did not find it offensive in any way and recommend it frequently.

im a teenager and I love this movie, I've watched it about 6 times and it keeps getting better. I gave it an 8..

I think that single woman reviewer was not the average.. seems most women I've talked to thought it was a great flick, which made me keep an eye out for it.... I just finished watching the movie for the first time on CBC (ahh, good ol' free Canadian content), and have to say I loved it, but not because of the ample female skin shown in it.

The story goes deeper than I expected, and the strip club/nudity scenes were not gratuitous at all.. in fact, I can think of a LOT of hollywood blockbusters that have little to no plot, yet show way more nudity, and not in a way important to the story.

In short I think it was truly brilliant... if you're afraid of mature themes maybe avoid it, but there is WAY more to the story than sexuality.

In my opinion the women was overdramatizing, but I can understand why she'd say what she did. Men like it more because it's centered around a strip club, obv.

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I'm a 27 year old woman (and totally straight btw) and I am one of those (apparently) few women who really enjoyed Exotica.
I used to work in a Movie Store in '98 and '99 and I remember seeing 'Exotica' on the shelves in our 'Canadian' section, and even though I was a huge, huge fan of 'The Sweet Hereafter' and would have loved to have seen another Atom Egoyan film, I passed it by hundreds of times in my search for take-home rentals (which were always free for us employees - sigh, I miss those days!) because I assumed (falsely) judging by the VHS cover and the title, that it was going to be really racy and likely wouldn't be my cup of tea.
Anyways, flash forward to a few years ago when I happened to be channel surfing and came across the movie on CBC Late Night, I hadn't known that both Bruce Greenwood and Sarah Polley were in the film (both of their characters were so great in 'Sweet Hereafter') so I decided after reading the description, 'Sure, why not?' and stuck around.
Well, suffice it to say I found the film to be totally engaging, and loved how the story was told in a non-linear style similar to 'Sweet Hereafter' where you weren't sure how things were going to play out in the end.
Bruce Greenwood's character was absolutely heartbreaking with his obsession and incapability of being able to get over the tragic events of his past. His storyline was definitely the saddest. And Elias Koteas was really great too as the jealous DJ who envies the strange bond Bruce's character has with Mia's character.
The Club itself was really neat, asthetically...I really liked the artistic, almost gothic feel it had with all the plants and trees and how those female shaped windows/mirrors were everywhere.
And of course, I love, love loved the offbeat yet somehow totally appropriate Leonard Cohen songs (especially 'Everybody Knows') that were featured in the film. Not the kind of music you'd expect to hear in your average Stripclub.
But, of course, Exotica was no ordinary Stripclub. Even calling it that, sounds wrong. I'd say 'Gentleman's Club' which sounds a bit old fashioned and classier.
Anyhoo, I didn't find the movie to be offensive in the slightest and given the setting of the film, I was actually surprised at the minimal amount of female nudity that was shown.
I've since seen other Egoyan films such as 'Ararat', 'Where the Truth Lies' and 'Crash', but sadly I didn't really like those films at all...
So, the only two in my collection of Atom Egoyan films are 'The Sweet Hereafter' and 'Exotica' - and even if he never makes another film that appeals to me, I'm still thrilled that I have those two in my collection.
I graded 'Exotica' an 8/10 and 'Sweet Hereafter' gets a 9/10.