I'm so frustrated with this movie so here's my super long, 4/10 review.
This review was too long for the actual reviews section, so I'm just going to post it here. Bless your heart if you actually have enough patience to read it. Hopefully it will bring about some discussion. The actual review part is labelled towards the bottom, so feel free to skip the summary if it doesn't interest you.
Plot Summary:
The movie begins with a previously successful, but now desolate writer
living in Paris and dealing with loneliness and depression. He
occasionally sees a professional dominatrix whom he asks 'How far would
you go? Would you kill somebody?'. She says 'No', but that she's heard
of someone who might go that far.
Elsewhere in Paris, Sophie is working as dominatrix herself, and, for
her 'day job', as a grief councilor for those who are near death. She
does not date, has never had a boyfriend or been in love, and shies
away from the idea of romance.
In a moment of serendipity, the two meet. She rebuffs him. They luckily
meet again, and again, and again, until she gives in to his advances
and they start to date and fall in love. Curiously, she denies having
any interest in BDSM and chides him for his confession of having
'experimented' with being dominated, saying "real men don't do that".
One night, deep into their relationship, on Christmas, The Writer is
alone and decides to call his agent, who tells him that his last book
cannot be published: everyone has 'passed'. In a deep depression he,
our main character, decides to call a dominatrix again, but finds that
his usual Mistress is unavailable. The dominatrix instead, at his
pleading, refers him to one of her friends, Sophie.
Sophie is visibly shaken to learn that it is her boyfriend who has
unknowingly scheduled an appointment with her to be dominated. At their
appointment she wears a mask in order to conceal her identity. She does
not dominate him, but instead just has him list his interests, which
include being slapped, punched, and verbally degraded. After hearing
this, she leaves the appointment without saying a word. The writer is
left confused, never suspecting that it was Sophie behind the mask. The
two meet up later, and Sophie, furious, tells him she never loved him
(a lie) and that she's been cheating on him all along (also a lie).
This breaks his heart.
The two part, both upset, and the writer calls his usual dominatrix
again, complaining that his earlier appointment had been unsuccessful,
and the woman, masked, had left after learning his interests. She, the
dominatrix, expresses surprise and refers him to another woman, one who
is said to be 'especially mean'.
The Writer goes to meet this new Mistress in an abandoned warehouse,
where he asks her to kill him. She tells him to be careful what he asks
for, but he says he's sure. After beating him senseless, she asks again
what he wants, and he replies that he wants her to kill him. She ties a
plastic bag over his head and tapes the bottom shut so he will
suffocate. As she's leaving the warehouse, Sophie is entering,
frantically searching for her love.
She'd found a letter he'd written to her and given to a dying young
girl whom she'd been counseling. It explained his feelings and how
serious they were. The girl told Sophie how lucky she is to have him,
softening her heart and causing her to change her mind and seek him out
again.
Now, Sophie runs into the warehouse only to find her love already
asphyxiated. She tears the bag off his head and tries to resuscitate
him, but it's too late. Grieving, she fetches a piece of rope and hangs
herself next to his body.
Meanwhile, back at the hospital where Sophie had worked as a grief
councilor, we see the dying girl taking her final breath. She's wearing
a gold ring, which a young gypsy boy, her brother, steals from her
finger as she dies. The girls mother, it turns out, was a gypsy witch.
She'd put a curse on Sophie and the The Writer, which resulted in their
in their ultimate doom. It turns out that the couple's chance encounter
with this gypsy sorceress, earlier in the story, was their undoing.
At the warehouse, The Writer awakens. He had not asphyxiated after all.
He looks up and, in horror, sees Sophie hanging from the ceiling,
unquestionably dead. He tries to free her, but his hands are tied
behind his back and he is helpless. The story ends and the screen fades
to black.
...
Review:
I am so frustrated with all of this. My main frustrations are, in
chronological order:
1. Sophie lies about her interest in BDSM, then later is furious at The
Writer for visiting a dominatrix, though *she* was the dominatrix he'd
visited. To me, this is frustratingly stupid.
3. Cliché main character suicide (e.g. 'The Room') which leads to a
depressing ending.
4. Personally, I feel like there's a difference between 'homage' and
'stealing'. The Romeo and Juliet ending feels stolen and terrible.
5. The plot hinges on the effectiveness of 'Gypsy magic'. Having your
main characters get cursed by gypsies is always cliché, and absolutely
ridiculous in this kind of film. 'Drag Me to Hell' was amusing for its
technical aspects (sound design, special effects and visual art), but
this is a romance/drama! The gypsy curse plot device is derivative,
contrived, and depressing; the idea that some random stranger can
casually put a curse on you and damn you forever, is pretty sad in
*any* kind of movie. What's the point? It's a terrible, hopeless story
to tell.
I liked the first 40 minutes or so, but now all I feel is anger. To me,
the story was completely classless and ham-fisted.
[Edit] After taking a few days to think, I've decided to slightly
increase the film's rating and add a small section on its merits:
1. The female lead is interesting, and I was really caught up in
finding out what makes her tick, but she killed herself before anything
was really explained.
I was left with so many questions. Why did she choose to be a
professional dominatrix? Why was she so hurt when The Writer booked a
session with her? Why did she not date previously?
2. The film actually delivers in being at least partly about BDSM.
After seeing Walk All Over Me, I'm at least grateful that this wasn't a
total bait-and-switch.
I can't speak as to how authentic the BDSM is; I really have no idea.
But it just seems like all the Dominants do is kick and punch their
submissives, which seems more like an MMA match than BDSM.
3. It was obviously, at least, interesting enough to encourage me to write this embarrassingly long review/summary.
Ultimately, the film is well-shot and acted. There are a lot of
interesting elements, but I just didn't know what they were thinking most of
the time.