Review of Eros (2004) by Stuart K — 16 Apr 2013

An anthology film which explore the themes of love and sex, in three parts, the first directed by Wong Kar-wai (Chungking Express (1994) and 2046 (2004)), Steven Soderbergh and Michelangelo Antonioni. While it's a good idea for a film, and you have 3 arty directors on board, it ends up being a pretentious mess.

Slow, confused and not particular erotic when it should be, which a great shame, as it LOOKS good, but that's it. Wong Kar-wai's segment, The Hand, has prostitute Miss Hua (Gong Li) planning to replace her old dressmaker Master Jin (Feng Tien) with a younger man Zhang (Chen Chang).

In Soderbergh's Equilibrium, set in the 1950's, it has Nick Penrose (Robert Downey Jr.) relaying a recurring dream he has about an unknown woman (Ele Keats) to psychiatrist Dr. Pearl (Alan Arkin), who seems to take pleasure in flying paper planes out of his office window.

In Antonioni's segement, The Dangerous Thread of Things, couple Christopher (Christopher Buchholz) and Cloe (Regina Nemni) have an arguement and briefly separate, and Cloe has a sensual encounter on the beach with Linda (Luisa Ranieri).

It's got a very weird tone, and it's Wong Kar-Wai and Soderbergh's segments come out best, while Antonioni's feels like a parody of his own work, considering Pedro Almodóvar was originally slated to do a segment, it makes you wonder what could have been.