plot summary and invitation **SPOILER**
I liked this film. It was funny, spooky, sad, eerie, spiritual, tender, sexy, and violent. It had something for everyone, as my brother-in-law observed. The plot took a lot of twists and turns, but was mostly easy to follow. I'll review the plot, and then we can discuss some of the deeper themes, if anyone's interested.
Plot Summary:
Charlie (from London) has been left by his wife who has taken up with a big time pop star living in Skye, Scotland. He gets in his car with the intention of following them to Skye and setting their house on fire. On route he meets Vincente, a half-Spanish half-British small time criminal and gigelo who is on the run from the mob. Seems he slept with the wrong woman, and the wronged husband has arranged to have his balls cut off. The two join up, and this unlikely pair of cuckold and cuckolder head for Scotland. While Charlie is a powderkeg of emotions, Vincente is funny and realtively carefree considering his circumstances.
They run out of petrol in the middle of the Scottish Highlands miles from the nearest petrol station, and end up spending the night in a guest house which is more of a retreat for "wierdos". There they meet a pedophile priest, a nymphomaniac, a frigid woman scarred by her husband's murder of her friend, a man who spends much of his time in a box and won't leave the house, an old woman dying of cancer, a stealth photographer, and a stalker. It turns out that the stalker, stalks deer, not people, but never-the-less is the most dangerous person in the group, as he has never come to terms with daughter's death and his part in it.
While Charlie starts to form relationships with some of the guest house residents, Vincente retreats into another world where he has visions of the stalkers dead daughter. While he is having noisy sex with the nymphomaniac, the ghost daughter walks through the room and he loses all interest in his partner of the moment.
The cancer patient dies through an assisted suicide and is buried on the property. At her request, the mourners first engage in a fire walking ceremony, in which they joyously, walk barefoot over hot coals. (The cast actually did this, I am told.) Charlie participates in this. I think Vincente does not.
This is followed by a cross-dressing party. All the men wear dresses and the women go "butch". Vincente is given a white flowing dress with red lipstick, which he puts on by himself. Claire (the frigid one) helps Charlie with his make-up and before she is done, they are making sweet, tender love. Tears trickle down each of their faces, as they experience something they haven't felt in a long time, if ever. The scene cuts away and when we return to them, they are sitting naked at either end of the bed. Charlie says in an emotional voice, "The world is a very confusing place." They both give a little laugh.
Vincente never makes it to the party. He kicks down a door with a high heeled foot to enter a room where he can watch videos of the stalker's ghost-daughter. He cries.
Meanwhile Charlie is having fun at the party. He's wearing the red dress Claire gave him and is dancing, drinking, and chatting. When the band starts to play the song that the pop star wrote for Charlie's wife, Charlie gets upset. But when the nymphomaniac pulls him into the dance, he reluctantly follows, and eventually seems to throw his troubles aside and enjoy himself.
Magnus, the stalker, walks in on Vincente watching the videos of his daughter and decides that Rory ( the photgrapher) is responsible for her death. He barges in on the party and rages at Rory, shoves Vincente, who has followed him in there and stomps out towards his caravan. Charlie follows him, against the advice of everyone, to see if he can help calm him down. Mangus slugs Charlie. Vincente follows Charlie, but is soon chased by the thugs who have been trailing him.
In the caravan Charlie is trussed up like a chicken. It's only now that we notice that he is wearing heels and fish net stockings along with the dress. Mangus is ranting about how he killed his daughter. She was inside her burning cottage and her hair was on fire. He couldn't reach her to save her so he shot her to death.
"I would have done the same thing," Charlie says.
Mangus gets even angrier, attacks Charlie and might even kill him. "You loved her," Charlie tries reasoning with him, and Mangus relents. He unties Charlies bonds and gives him some drink. Desperate screams can be heard in the distance and the two run out with rifles to follow the source.
The mobster have caught Vincente and bound him at the wrists. Now they are nailing his hands to a tree. He is seated on the ground and there is blood all over the lap of his flowing white dress. They gouge his eyes out. When his friends arrive, Charlie shoots and kills the fleeing mobsters. Magnus shoots and kills Vincente.
Later we see Charlie and Claire in bed together, this time contedly in each others arms. The film ends with Charlie driving back to London. He looks at the butterfly on the dashboard (something Vincente had given him) and laughs.