Heaven in Hell

Maks becomes romantically involved with the young Maja. However, without knowing it, he ends up having a relationship with Olga, Maja's mother. The two embark on a torrid romance, until the daughter finds out and ruins everything.

A delightful sensual romance, slow pace, somewhat predictable, many sensual sex scenes, convenient situations when necessary, beautiful photography, great fuss regarding the age difference (only 15 years, I bet). Maya could have been honest from the beginning, what a spoiled and problematic girl, annoying and bad (justified), and the mother got carried away by the witness too quickly (but I don't judge), there could have been a little more palpable drama... And the gangster friend addicted to Brazil...

I wasn't sure what to expect here, with no synopsis available, which I prefer anyway, I just wasn't expecting a passionate romance of sorts.

Maks, an Italian stallion of a man, working in Poland in high adrenaline sports, starts a relationship with Olga, a widow, 15 years older, who happens to be a judge and coincidentally is the mother of his young adult girl friend, Maja.

Initially Maks plans on manipulating the attractive judge to help with his best friend's court case and wasn't aware that his girlfriend Maja was her daughter, but the connection is possibly more than just physical attraction for lonely Olga or a scam for adventurous Maks. There is a lot of physical attraction going on in fact, lots of sex scenes, with T&A nudity between Maks and Maja and then even more with Olga, mostly on the beach, but these are not From here to Eternity lovers in swimsuits.

Olga and Maja became estranged when the husband / father died, neither really copying with the grieving process. Maja only reconnects with Olga when she finds out her older boyfriend Maks had started seeing Olga and she plans to break them up with the help of Maks' friend before things go too far.

Will vulnerable Olga risk opening her heart to this younger man or have a better relationship with daughter Maja ? Will Maks break both of their hearts when the truth comes out, or by going to Brazil with his friend or will he fall in love with one of them ?

The lead actors and their performance's are better than expected in comparison to other Polish films I've recently seen at the cinema. The odd thing here is Maks (Simone Susinna) doesn't speak Polish so a lot of dialogue is actually in English which made it easier to follow for me. The sex scenes are maybe excessive and might put some people off, they are passionate rather than graphic porn though.

A slightly unbelievable story I think, or at least unlikely?.

As an English man who obtained a degree in Film studies there's nothing more I love than watching films from other countries - I've very rarely seen a poor Polish film

This was yet another excellent film with only a few flaws

I did think this would be average and most of the film it was hovering around the 6/10 mark - for at least a third of the film it seemed to be a bit of 50 shades type mummy p0rn story at times and the audience was 90% female so the strapping 6 pack Italian hunk certainly made sure they got their moneys worth with the nudity

But it was the back story that made the film not since mamma Mia have I seen such an emotional mother daughter drama - the final quarter with its emotional reckoning on the boat will have you in tears and this made the film the ending was good too although personally I think the sunset finale ( no spoilers here as always ) would have made a better edit - sometimes things are better left for the audience to decide .

It's a tragic love triangle brought about by unusual circumstances and a possibly slightly far fetched coincidence .

Themes of age appropriate relationships and professional misconduct were prevalent as well generational morality - when fantasy becomes reality - there seemed to be more to the story than the audience knew like this was a sequel at times . This film would be worthy of a prequel and sequel . There were also themes of friendship and deceit . But the most powerful theme was pent up miscommunication born from shared tragedy and mental illness caused by loss .

Quite a bit of the dialogue was in English as the international language between a polish and Italian protagonist.

Definitely worth seeing

A good drama with a little touch of comedy and huge dollop of love lust and romance

Pad. A 8/10.