The Comfort of Strangers (1991)

Based on a creepy Ian McEwan novel, this Paul Schrader film stars Natasha Richardson and Rupert Everett as a married couple who find their marriage sliding into a morass of tedium. To reignite it, they visit Venice, where they fall under the spell of an urbane older couple, played by Christopher Walken (in one of his most chillingly insinuating roles) and Helen Mirren (who seems to be more his crippled acolyte than his wife). British reserve forces the younger couple to be polite to these strange birds, but increased exposure to them through coincidental meetings gradually pulls them into their deadly orbit. Adapted by Harold Pinter, it's a slightly arid but still goose-fleshy film in which nothing is what it seems to be and, what's worse, nothing familiar looks familiar anymore. --Marshall Fine Amazon.com

A great way to see Venice-with friends (fiends)

Do you know where you are???? Your'e on the other side of the mirror. Wow that line along with what do you want? Want? I'll show you what I want!! And boom there goes Walkens Character over the edge into madness. I loved this movie for its atmosphere and great setting in Venice with terrific script and wonderful off-kilter performances from the main four actors. This one along with Dont look Now and Talented Mr Rilpey make a great trio of Terror from Italy. Love to see these three at a Drive -In. Wow. Just Great. June 19, 2008

Anyone For Venice?

The Comfort Of Strangers is worth watching simply for the photography. Venice turns up often in film, but director Paul Schrader really gets it right. From the endless alleyways, so ominous at night, to the outdoor sewers - whoops - I mean canals - to the exquisite public buildings and lavish, dark interiors, expertly dressed down to the last detail, the sense of place is intoxicating. Much of the film finds Venice bathed in gentle afternoon sunlight, rendering it soft, opulent, alluring. Every obligatory cliché is touched, from the pigeons to the gondoliers to the gold leaf domes and the charming bridges. Anybody who is anybody arrives at his or her 500 year old crib by water taxi. Art with a capital A is so ubiquitous and so in decline that the stench of decadence and licentiousness linger in the air like perfume. That's the good news.

The bad news is, everything else. To paraphrase Churchill, never has so much talent been assembled with such lack of result. This line-up has "dream team" written all over it. Novel by Ian McEwan. Screenplay by Harold Pinter. (Memo to Harold Pinter: Harold, sometimes less is less.) Christopher Walken, Natasha Richardson, Helen Mirren, and Rupert Everett. Granted, Everett would probably be in over his head shooting a Calvin Klein commercial, but the other three are world class. Walken exudes the kind of malice required for films like this when he's picking up lunch at Arby's. Top it off with the master of unsettling music, Angelo Badalamenti. Venice is the ideal city for a tale of sexual corruption, depravity, and decay. What started well became - staggeringly boring.

Sadly the blame must be laid squarely at the feet of Schrader and Pinter. The dialogue in this movie is so appallingly listless it makes Last Year At Marienbad seem like a Marx Brothers comedy. Our lead characters don't have enough energy between them to lift a teaspoon, or chemistry enough to cause the decomposition of leaves. The malevolent sexuality of Walken and Mirren, far from being either frightening or exciting, or - in a better movie - both - is simply dumb. In fact, everything about how these characters meet and interact is both dumb and pointless. Schrader has written and directed some great pictures; in this one he seems convinced that plush interiors make an adequate substitute for plot, characters, motivation, interesting situations and point. I have seen maple syrup pour onto pancakes with more urgency. February 17, 2008

One for the charity shop

This film (along with "Don't Look Now") was recommended by a friend as a countermeasure to my praise about the beauty of Venice. And, indeed, the city is well-represented throughout the film.

My partner and I sat down and were engaged with the plot as husband-and-wife Rupert Everett and Natasha Richardson are slowly drawn further and further into the world of the Italian Christopher Walken and his Canadian wife, played by Helen Mirren. Everett, incidentally, plays well the role of a loving yet disconcerted husband in this film. (Who says a gay actor cannot convincingly play a straight man?) Walken is very good as the sinister Venetian.

So why only two stars? Well, the build-up of the tension is well-handled, but the ending, the climax of the film, is so laughably preposterous, if it were not so disgustingly violent. We felt short-changed. And since we could not conceivably envisage a time when we would want to sit down and watch this movie again (despite the views of Venice), the DVD now sits in the cupboard awaiting the next charity bag that drops through the letterbox.
January 6, 2008

Visual beauty

Film based on Ian McEwan's novel, masterfully prepared for big screen by Harold Pinter. Cast includes incredible Helen Mirren, Christopher Walken, Natasha Richardon and Rupert Everett. It is a story set in beautiful and romantic Venice, where two lovers are trying to re-ignite their affair away from everyone else they know: their work, children and famiy. In the course of strolling thru the labyrinth of Venice's streets, they run into a man who tells them odd, creepy tales. In spite of dislike they take into him, Venice is just not city big enough to avoid stranger's lure long enough, especially since he is obsessed with the young man and determine to run into them at every opportune moment. Before long, this young couple is drawn into a strange ritual of the middle aged couple whose motives for the excessive hospitality are difficult to comprehend at once. But as passion between these two young lovers is slowly but surely re-ignated, so is repressed homosexual attraction that Christopher Walken's character Robert feels for the young man played by Everett. Film will keep you guessing about the ending until the very last scene. Intellectual film with beutiful images of Venice and masterful acting of four very talented actors. January 6, 2008

THE COMFORT OF STRANGERS

The DVD was in good shape, what more can I ask for. I'd seen this movie in the past, I simply wanted to own it on DVD, I'm content. March 9, 2006

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