Review of Tropic of Cancer (1972) by William C — 21 Jun 2011

This wasn't a total blind rent, since I'm more or less familiar with the book. That said, I expected the movie to be dated and tame by today's standards, NC-17 notwithstanding. (I mean, come on, this was shot in 1970.).

The former was certainly true, but not the latter -- maybe I'm a prude, but I was picking my jaw up off of the floor during some of Rip Torn's vile voiceovers of the women he had laid, wanted to lay, and was in the midst of laying in the middle of Paris. I can only imagine how far Henry Miller's book goes.

Despite how much the portrayal of the sex disgusted me, this is still a breezy and beautifully shot film. So why the 3 out of 5? The movie suffers from having no likable characters at all, and there's not really much of a plot aside from Rip Torn saying things I never, ever want to hear him utter again.