User Reviews

In Australia, the executive Kate (Linda Cropper) sees a young woman undressing her stolen dress in the swimming pool of a club, and regardless of the contrary opinion of her mate Phil (Jeff Truman), she decides to steal it back. Later her teenager son Matt (Wade Osborne) is approached by the smalltime thief Rachel (Anna Lise Phillips), the woman who stole the dress, and after spending some leisure time with her, they go to his middle class house. Sooner, Rachel's friend Nick (Scott Major) joins them, and Nick ties Matt to his mother's bed while Rachel masturbates him and cleans him with his mother's dress. The abused boy has a trauma, and his mother seeks revenge against Rachel, who returns with her friends, in escalating forms of retaliation until a tragic conclusion.

The beginning of "Envy" is promising and quite original, notwithstanding being confused. I saw the first two or three chapters of the DVD twice to understand the intriguing situation. Unfortunately, after the abduction of Rachel by Kate in the mall, it seems that the director became lost in the development of the story. It does not make any sense and is completely absurd for me that an intelligent executive, even affected by an emotional problem, decides to send a sociopath back to her home to give the sexual initiation to her traumatized son. The conclusion, with the death of Matt, is appropriate and shows that violence may generate increased payback, and the price of her dress in the end was the life of her beloved son. The actress Anna Lise Phillips has a great performance and makes the movie worth.My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Inveja Fatal" ("Fatal Envy")

The tale resolves around escalating tit-for-tat retaliations between a mother and a young woman with antisocial tendencies. I bought this for NZ$5 from a bargain bin. As such I was initially pleasantly surprised. A bit of kink, a bit of drama. It is true that there were some plot holes and unconvincing character transitions but it still could have been good fun. Towards the end it presented what I found a quite amusing possible alternative resolution that potentially tied together some of the questions raised quite neatly. The questions I am referring to are, What was the actual core of the boy's trauma, had the mother lost sight of her desire to protect him in seeking revenge, and could the girl ever escape her situation with just $180 of 'life savings' Unfortunately there is apparently a handbook of inescapable clichés out there that escalating revenge dramas can only end with the obvious tragedy that leaves the protagonist looking mournfully into the camera and teaches us that escalating revenge is bad. The ending that was added to restore this cliché is described in the blurb as 'enigmatic' and 'profoundly unsettling after-effect'. I just found it annoying.

The New Girlfriend certainly engages, but holds back and based on next to nothing.

For starters Rachel needn't spend all this time with Matt to get into his house and could've simply opened the door for Nick, but it's a massive characterizational flaw for Matt to bring this guy into his home. The characters and dialogue's all pretty thin, except Kate played by Linda Cropper, who carries the film. Matt's done poorly in all facets. For the level of deviousness, there needs to be more than "just because." I don't mind Kate's decision, as she wants her son back and to be rid of the anger. Simply notifying the police isn't going to solve that. I was thinking Rachel isn't the kind of person to be making a deal with though, once free's going to be seeking revenge. The film could've been better written and more intense for sure.

This movie was a budget flick to say the least. Camera work presented several interesting shots, but for the most part, it was not top quality at all. The plot was the weakest aspect, the acting was mostly bad or wooden at best, and the script wasn't good either. I felt as though the movie would never end. The fact that the crazed mother wouldn't simply go to the police was ludicrous. It was as if there was a "no way out" thing happening where the family couldn't, but this simply was not the case. The police were already looking for the trio of bad folks so why not call them when the mother found the house they live in. In fact, by the end where I assume the kid was actually killed (er drowned), you would think the police would most definitely have been involved!!! This really made the plot ridiculous and the movie was nearly unwatchable.

Stupid. I wasted 82 minutes watching this.

What the heck does this film attempt to reveal I have no idea. It is a story about a naive virgin teenage boy who gets seduced by a con girl and her male accomplice who bind his hand and legs to his parents bed, then the seductress female jerk him off why her male companion gleefully watches, and voila' the teenage boy falls in love with this con girl over an excited and premature happy ending?

When the boys parents find out that their virgin son has been violated (mommy comes home to her son tied up to the four bedposts of her own bed with one of her dresses covering up his privates and happy ending) mommy says her son has been raped, and daddy believes the con girl should have completed the sex act with a good shagging.

There are two (2) con girls and one (1) con man wreaking havoc in the neighborhood by robbing, raping and pilfering victims right out in the open and when mommy discovers who they are and where they live she begins to retaliate which only leads to a tit for tat (no pun intended).

This is one of those films like a bad car accident in that it is a tragic and horrible site to see but as you drive by you just can't take your eyes off of it. Afterwards you may say to yourself "why did I look at that?" At least that is what I am saying now. No redeeming value thus a poor 4 out of 10 rating.

***Possible spoilers***

I enjoyed this movie despite its uneven story development. The driving event of the film was the son's "molestation", which I found a little tame. It took me a while to figure out that the youngster wasn't in fact in his early twenties. Perhaps a younger-looking actor would have served better. Possibly, the hooligans could have been a little more violent or nasty. Hard to imagine that this rather tame event could have led to the total destruction of the family.

The mother's ambivalent motivation was well-depicted, although I think more milage could have been gotten from it. The end of the movie comes very quickly and I was left with lots of questions about exactly what happened and why. For once, a movie that could have been 30 minutes longer.

Overall, an entertaining movie, though.