Review of Quills (2000) by Bastet 0 — 29 Apr 2010

Quills is a movie where you feel you are watching something epic, with a massive message but then are left feeling hollow in the end. The message of the movie is NOT about sexual liberation, but rather it rails against censorship.

From here on may contain spoilers.

It turns the Marquis into the martyr of censorship and while I love Geoffrey Rush and he did make the Marquis somewhat likable, that really glosses over the type of man DeSade really was. This can't be helped as it's the script- and you do get to see him fully in the nude- I mean full frontal. It was an awkward moment for me though because I wasn't quite prepared for Geoffrey Rush weiner- I feel conflicted.

Moving on, Kate Winslet is likable as always, our poster child of the sexually curious girl who leaves all sexual things to the imagination vs acting upon them (again, supporting why censorship is wrong). It just seemed to me she was playing a character with the naivety of someone years younger (I would've thought late teens). What puzzles me most about her character is how she shrugs off being near raped (I thought actual the first time) by a brutish mental patient to where she is OK being near him (which costs her her life). Seriously?

Joaquin Phoenix is a great vicar though I feel he is playing a character similar to Lucius in "The Village"- just a bit more learned and worldly wise but you have to hand it to the man- he plays conflicted characters VERY well- you feel his pain.

Michael Caine is in a role different than we're all used to- rather than being the fatherly/grandfatherly figure, he is a brutish dirty old man who takes a barely adolescent wife and rails against the Marquis as being an abomination, all the while practicing old school torture "cures" on mental patients.

It is a very interesting movie with an interesting message, sprinkled with tons of sexual parody and even allusions to the Marquis original work (the character Simone was very similar to Justine, just lest brutal trials and tribulations). You do not have to be familiar with DeSade's work to understand the movie, but it does help you pick up on the "inside" pieces of the plot that just add attention to detail. I must say though, I really did not care for the end.