Lie with Me

Lie with Me; erotic drama, Canada, 2005; D: Clement Virgo, S: Lauren Lee Smith, Eric Balfour, Polly Shannon

Leila enjoys her life, lands with men in bed all the time and doesn't like to be committed to a steady relationship. She suffers slightly from an upcoming divorce of her parents. At a party, she has sex with a stranger outside, all the time looking at David, who is at the same time having sex with a girl in a car. Accidentally, Leila and David meet again and start and affair at first, but with time she really falls deeply in love with him. When his dad dies, he ends his relationship with her. She tries to again have sex with strangers, but can't seem to enjoy it anymore, longing after David. He attends the wedding of Leila's best friend and makes up with her.

Clement Virgo's "Lie with Me" is a rare kind of erotic film with sophistication, philosophy, intelligence and genuine emotions. It's rare to find those kind of attributes in any particular film, for that matter, but it is even more difficult to achieve that in this genre which automatically deserves even more praise. If the viewers can watch the film with an open mind, they will enjoy a refreshing portrait of a sex relationship from a female perspective, through her thoughts in the form of the narration which, despite some complaints from the critics, seems so honest. There are so many clever little details plastered throughout the film that have a purpose which is why it is a delight to search for them, like when it is shown how Leila suffers because the break-up of her parents, which works as a reason why she doesn't want to have a steady relationship but prefers to just have occasional sex with men. After she meets David, it culminates in a wonderfully emotional moment when she feels distracted at home and we hear her words: "I didn't know how I could get that from him what I normally got from men. With this man I wanted to have sex again and again...I thought about him in bed, on the street, everywhere". The sex scenes between them aren't so great, but they are honest and there is a chemistry between them, whereas the story breaks many cliches with unusual scenes (like the fact that it is shown how David takes care of his old father who lives in his apartment - his death maybe a 'plot device', though it is still interesting; after the break-up, Leila can't enjoy sex anymore and hopelessly masturbates while watching a porn), which ease some flaws, like an occasional clumsy approach or the shaky last 20 minutes of the film. It is a small delight to finally find an adult movie that's actually grown up. 

Grade:+++