Review of You Are Alone (2005) by Mike C — 16 Jun 2010

Opening scene hinting at giving a priest a golden shower: How could this film possibly go wrong? This is a film, by the way. It's a short one, under 90 minutes, and probably thankfully so. Had it been much longer, I might have been bored enough to shut it off. The acting, especially from Bohl, is superb. Very subtle and very real. Brundage is not as realistic, but his character does have the task of portraying what the writer wants. Grisham once went to Italy. To write about it, he came up with Playing for Pizza. This writer had a few things to say, and Brundage is how he said it. It makes for some stilted dialogue and actually frustrated me quite a bit for a while.

Bohl truly is magnificent. I believe her character is a damaged girl that sells herself. She completely sells it. On top of that, she is quite attractive if not a little thin, so that's definitely a plus.

Finally, the ending. Holy shit. Can't risk a spoiler here, but I thought some predictables did come true, then they sprang that ending. I am usually against the twist ending, but you don't even have to watch this twice to sit back and say, you know, that's definitely what they were setting me up for.

If there is a strike against the movie, it's a little dry. It takes a little extra time for the story and characters to develop. Still, without that extra touch, the ending isn't nearly as powerful.

As I was watching, I kept thinking that Leaving Las Vegas could not be beat for prostitution movies. And En La Cama is another good movie of just a couple in a bedroom the entire time. I still think LLV is head and shoulders above everything else, but this little movie did turn out to be a nice piece of art.