I think the first point to be made is that there is just something wrong with self-proclaimed "erotic thrillers". They always seem to feature characters who investigate their sexuality beyond the missionary position and therefore are signified as selfish, perverse and fated by lazy scriptwriters. Killing Me Softly is no exception.
Heather Graham plays Alice, a woman who leaves her fiancee after a quick shag with a smouldering stranger. Before you can say "This isn't a patch on 'Last Tango In Paris'" he is taking goldfish out of their bowls to demonstrate the effect of high altitude on mountaineers (and symbolically to hint at his cruelty and Alice being a fish out of water). But that not all! Oh no...on their very wedding day he is photographing the poor dear nude....in a (oh the sacrilege of these wanton libertines!) churchyard before making her stomp after him on day long hike so they can have another shag ( SPOILER....erotic asphyxiation is involved here)
Throughout it all Fiennes glowers and sits around smoking moodily while Heather Graham gives it her best 'American innocent in decadent Europe' performance. Its hard to tell whether director Chen Kaige actually bothered to turn up - possibly too busy wondering how badly this would affect his career. At the end of the day though the real villain of this piece has to be the scriptwriter and the author of the ludicrous source material - no cliche is avoided and heavy handed symbolism is thrown around with the carefree abandon of of a 15 year olds creative writing lesson.
In its favour though the camera work is lovely and captures the essence of London without resorting to a montage of Buckingham Palace,Tower Bridge and a few Pearly kings and queens etc (I bet the writers are disappointed that they hadn't written one in though!) Theres little else to be said in its favour really. It isn't one of the worst films I've ever seen but one that takes itself so seriously its hard to supress the giggles until the boredom begins to set in
Heather Graham plays Alice, a woman who leaves her fiancee after a quick shag with a smouldering stranger. Before you can say "This isn't a patch on 'Last Tango In Paris'" he is taking goldfish out of their bowls to demonstrate the effect of high altitude on mountaineers (and symbolically to hint at his cruelty and Alice being a fish out of water). But that not all! Oh no...on their very wedding day he is photographing the poor dear nude....in a (oh the sacrilege of these wanton libertines!) churchyard before making her stomp after him on day long hike so they can have another shag ( SPOILER....erotic asphyxiation is involved here)
Throughout it all Fiennes glowers and sits around smoking moodily while Heather Graham gives it her best 'American innocent in decadent Europe' performance. Its hard to tell whether director Chen Kaige actually bothered to turn up - possibly too busy wondering how badly this would affect his career. At the end of the day though the real villain of this piece has to be the scriptwriter and the author of the ludicrous source material - no cliche is avoided and heavy handed symbolism is thrown around with the carefree abandon of of a 15 year olds creative writing lesson.
In its favour though the camera work is lovely and captures the essence of London without resorting to a montage of Buckingham Palace,Tower Bridge and a few Pearly kings and queens etc (I bet the writers are disappointed that they hadn't written one in though!) Theres little else to be said in its favour really. It isn't one of the worst films I've ever seen but one that takes itself so seriously its hard to supress the giggles until the boredom begins to set in