Lust and love are two very similar four letter “L” words that get confused quite often when emotions are running high. Love can involve lust but normally it doesn’t exist the other way around if the partners come back to reality. Lust is a more of fleeting moment feeling that exists under intense desire for the sake of simply pleasing ones’ senses. However, many people in relationships have trouble distinguishing what they’re feeling when confronted with questioning themselves. Love is more sacrificial where one will do something for their partner even if it may not be what they want. Unfortunately, love and lust can make people do very stupid and even dangerous things to each other. That is essentially what happens here in this film based on a novel from Cornell Woolrich.
Adapted to the screen and directed by Michael Cristofer, the story follows a wealthy Cuban Luis Antonio Vargas (Antonio Banderas) who has been writing letters to an American woman he is looking to meet in person. The woman he is meeting is Julia Russell (Angelina Jolie). At first, there is hesitation between the two but they slowly gravitate towards each other. Initially, the attraction is lust and develops more into love. The road to getting to that point is not straight forward at all. This makes the development between Luis and Julia feel natural as no relationship happens purely overnight. There is more to the story though that can’t be disclosed as it would be spoiling how events play out. There’s also Billy (Thomas Jane), a private investigator who comes to seek Luis’ help as he is looking for a woman with the same name as Julia’s.
The way Cristofer handled the characters throughout the story gives the viewer an interesting idea as to how both emotions can drive people to various limits. The script isn’t the most edge of your seat intensity but there are a number surprises that viewers may not see coming. From an acting perspective, everyone does a decent job at their roles. Both Banderas and Jolie show their emotions properly, as does Thomas Jane. Prior to this, Banderas was in Desperado (1995) and The Mask of Zorro (1998). Jolie had been in Gone in 60 Seconds (2000) and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). Jane had been in Thursday (1998), The Thin Red Line (1998) and Deep Blue Sea (1999). There’s even appearances from Jack Thompson and Gregory Itzin.
There’s no one that really sticks out with their performance, but they are all competent performances. The one infamous scene this film is best known for is the love making scene between Banderas and Jolie. Despite it being heavily cut down, it is still pretty graphic but that’s not the only time. There are other scenes as well where things get pretty sexual. It’s just surprising seeing how much this occurred throughout the film. The premise definitely lives up to the nature of the film though. There’s even a few scenes where if it weren’t for acting, it would look like domestic violence. It’s actually quite surprising to see how much Jolie went through here. Some viewers nowadays may not be comfortable with it either.
Visually speaking, the filming locations look great. Shot by Rodrigo Prieto, the majority of sets are actual locations which makes the scope feel that much bigger. Since the time setting also took place far in the past, a lot of the technology used throughout the movie are unique too. Even if it’s just riding a horse instead of a car. Prieto would later go on to film for Frida (2002) and 8 Mile (2002). Lastly, the score composed by Terence Blanchard is appropriate for the movie. There’s a lot of tracks throughout the listening experience that reflect the Latin background this story place in. The album itself is about an hour and it is decent to listen to as well.
The story itself isn’t the most captivating and the content can sometimes be quite much to take in. The acting though is still very much believable, as are the completely real set pieces and authentic musical score.
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