Between Your Legs (1998)

This taut unpredictable thriller about sexual obsession from Spanish director Manuel Gomez Pereira stars Academy Award nominee Javier Bardem (The Dancer Upstairs Before Night Falls) and Victoria Abril (Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!). Javier a married screenwriter with a penchant for phone sex and the family babysitter attends a sex addict's meeting where his eyes lock with the sultry Miranda who likes her sex in public. After the meeting unable to control their urges clothes are shed and lives damaged as Miranda and Javier have sex in an abandoned car - which happens to have a corpse in the trunk. From the sizzling opening sex scene to the shocking conclusion Between Your Legs is a consistently engaging absolutely compelling mystery.System Requirements:Running Time 120 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: MYSTERY/SUSPENSE Rating: NR UPC: 807839000542 Manufacturer No: TLA045 Product Description

Victoria Abril is fantastic this role, she definitely carries the film.

You never know what you're going to expect when you watch this quirky Spanish flick. There are some obvious moments that are (Pedro) Almodavar and some are (Julio) Medem, which should come as no surprise as the actors in this show have worked with the above directors. Sex, suspense, comedy, drama - it's all here rolled into one. In its English title it sounds like a porno, in its camera-work it feels like a Hispanic melodrama, and in its soundtrack and direction its pure vintage Hitchcock, but this film is none of those things. It is a highly engaging and suspenseful thriller, which although borrowing much from the genre that it inhabits, stands on its own two feet as an oddly original piece of work.

Although the film is all about sex it is neither erotic nor pornographic, but intelligently scripted and all of the sex scenes are visually mild. Instead, it is about the repercussions of sexual relationships, which is explored through the eyes of two "sex addicts" who meet in an anonymous therapy session. Their relationships with significant friends and family around them begin to break down in the face of their lust and love, and an overzealous spouse and an unfortunate murder leads them perfectly into fairly traditional thriller territory. The suspense is kept up throughout and I found myself glued to the set. There are plenty of little surprises to keep you entertained, and plenty of twists to keep you guessing.

The cinematography is stunning---one of the most beautifully shot and constructed urban thrillers I've seen from any country. In terms of atmosphere, it's unforgettable the character in the rain, in the shadows of alleyways, the iridescent shimmering interiors (shot in some beautifully seedy Spanish settings).

Javiar Bardem is great as usual and Victoria Abril was fantastic in her role, she definitely carries the film here. I highly recommend this.
April 3, 2006

A story of addiction

I was looking for Spanish speaking movies, with great actors like Javier Bardem or Victoria Abril. And I found both of them in this movie. Considering the director and actors, I expected some dark, headache type of movie. You know, one of those "European" movies that you are supposed to watch while not thoroughly digesting them, only for the sake of watching something different from, let's say,..., King Kong. Well, you still get a kind of King Kong, the saving big guy, really COOL!!! But at least you also learn some Spanish words, and you get a real guy not a robot. Actually, the toughest, most headaching thing about this movie was to look for it in a DVD store and have to pronounce its title, in English or in Spanish, for the cashier. I will never forget the expression on the face of the young man, saying "between your... Oh, wow. It must be a fun movie!". So, it you want to buy it, buy it on the Internet...
It actually is a rather dark atmosphere, but Bardem and Abril make it a lot lighter. The plot has a comic strip style, it looks unrealistic but you still get involved in the story. Kind of like King Kong, if I may!!! I liked the indulgence of the director for the viewers, offering us the happy ending, because after all that happened to these poor guys, they deserved a better life. If you are looking for sex scenes, go find something else. It is for sure R-rated, for some scenes where the title is taken literaly, but it is not a big deal, and compared to some recent American movies, it could soon become a classic and rated PG-13 maybe! I found the plot a little too long and complicated. I liked the fast castillan speaking; try to watch it in Spanish. For the rest of the detail about the story, I let you go to the other viewers! I personally enjoyed it but wouldn't go crazy about it. February 8, 2006

good if a bit confusing and conventional...

Mainly it's a pleasure to watch the three central characters, Javier Bardem, Victoria Abril, and Victor Lopez. Especially Victoria Abril, she is absolutely gorgeous and talented, I can't get enough of this luscious lady!

The film though is indeed a bit gimmicky in its exploitative use of the whole sex-addiction issue (grazing over it without even attempting to shed any light on it) and the happy romantic ending feels a little pat. In between, there is simply too much happening, too many competing subplots and minor characters, and the lines of intersection are not always very clear or coherent. It does have some fine Almodovarian moments here and there, but all too few and far in between. Visually though it is a pleasure to watch, the film went by pretty quickly, I have to admit I was taken by its cinematographical beauty and style more than its (lack of) substance. Kind of wished there was more happenin' sex happening, despite the title there isn't that much of it by European film standards and not even all that much nudity either. You could say this film is kind of a tease in that respect.

All in all, it was nevertheless far better than your average typical Hollywood multiplex crapola though. October 12, 2005

Between Your Legs

Between Your Legs! What kind of visions does this title conjure up in your mind? If you imagined the wind blowing through your hair while riding a Harley, not bad but you're wrong. Horseback riding or racing? Wrong again. If these are the images you summon, you are probably either a priest, a nun or undersexed. I'll give you a clue. What is said to make the world go around? Sex? Bingo! Between Your Legs is a story about SEX. Sex addicts to be exact.

Between Your Legs centers around three people Miranda, Victoria Abril, Javier, Javier Bardem and Felix, Carmelo Gomez, two of whom meet at a therapy session for sex addicts, a Sex Anonymous if you will. Talk about throwing red meat at a tiger, a co-ed therapy session for SEX ADDICTS? Not surprisingly, Miranda and Javier, who have the same compulsions, start hanging around. When Miranda wasn't walking her dog through the park, picking up strangers for trysts, she was the wife of Felix, a cop and mother of an adolescent daughter and Javier, when not engaging in habitual phone sex, was a successful writer and producer.

As I said Miranda and Javier start hanging around and pretty soon they're hanging all around each other. In fairness Miranda tried to resist but Javier was persistent and soon, after a couple hours, they were having a go in an abandoned car in a parking garage. In the aftermath this upset Miranda, probably because she was off to a bad start curing her addiction, and she ran off. However the affair continued and eventually Felix (Miranda`s husband) found out.

At this point, I need to tell you that Javier discovers that audio tapes of his erogenous phone conversations have been circulating around Spain (it`s a Spanish movie) much to his consternation, also the police discover the body of a young man in the back of the abandoned vehicle, in which Miranda and Javier first had sex in leaving behind DNA which ostensibly tied Javier to the car if not the body, so Felix, who didn't like Javier much anyway, thought he was a murderer.

Conclusion

The rest of the movie is spent tying these two events (tapes/body) together. There were a couple of fairly good plot twists but they failed to elevate the movie much above mediocrity.

Since this was a foreign film, (with sub titles) I was not familiar with any of the cast. I thought their acting was adequate though not exceptional but that is a judgment leveled without the benefit of understanding what they were saying. (my Spainsh is a little rusty). I thought the story moved well and the directing or maybe the editing (it's hard to tell) was done well. Although there were several passionately erotic sex scenes, there was no full nudity and even partial nudity was held to a minimum. This doesn't mean that anyone under the age of majority should be watching this movie as just the story line itself connotes lascivious behavior. The sex scenes themselves were done realistically almost fully clothed but were skillfully depicted and because of the spontaneity, were just as sensuous, if not more, than the usual nude sex simulations. I must admit to a certain amount of disappointment from my voyeuristic eyes, however. Final Rating: 3.4 stars August 13, 2005

Decent thriller with a bit of drama.

While others have criticized this film for the implications of the ending - that the murder essentially goes unpunished - I think that the bigger message here is that often things spiral and have unanticipated consequences. As a thriller, this movie presents interesting issues; the plot is a bit stock, but the fun is in how the characters arrive at their respective impasses. This isn't a film that has you holding your breath, or even leaves you jolted in surprise. However, its dramatic qualities - how the characters are unable to excape their own destructive behaviour, and how the ensuing results intertwine - that make this an enjoyable film. Moreover, the acting is superb.

Bottom line, this is a bit of a psycho-thriller mixed in with a bit of drama. Inside of either genre, it is interesting. This one shines in how it brings the two elements together. July 19, 2005

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