Erosion

I recently rented Erosion from my neighborhood Hollywood Video and watched it over the weekend. It's an interesting independent film...very anti-Hollywood in terms of its storytelling style. I was originally attracted to the film by its suggestion of eroticism, but it's not until I watch the film when I realized the sexual encounters are not supposed to be for pleasure but more for pain. They are more about the psychological thrill of the moment, the fear to be caught, the voyeur that may be watching. There are not tits and ass in the film, yet it's the audience's own imagination that makes the film so provocative. We are, in a way, their partners in crime. I really enjoyed Erosion and recommend it to anyone whose imagination is not limited by the images they see and the sound they hear...

Once upon a time a film would tell you a story. If something in the story was extremely sordid, bloody or harrowing the director would miss this part out whilst at the same time allowing you to work out what was happening or had happened through sound or consequence or symbolism. This allowed a far wider audience to see films with really quite important messages.

Here we have the opposite method. Put together the saddest, most painful or just dull aspects of a film that would once have been tastefully left out, and challenge the audience to start trying to imagine the story. We find we can do it that way, being the imaginative creatures we are and having done the work we're pretty much told anyway gradually, but I for one found I didn't really want to. This film made me think... It made me think I'd rather be sat in front of Lethal Weapon. Now that is not good.

I saw this film and was blown away at how truthful the love scenes felt. The acting (especially Charis Michelsen) is totally convincing from beginning to end. Give it 5 minutes at the beginning and the payoff is one that you'll never forget.

It's very erotic without being graphic or lewd. It sets up simple situations between the main characters that completely draw you into their world of trysts in other peoples' homes and makes you feel nervous like someone might walk in and catch you in the midst of doing something taboo.

I loved it and hope that Ann Lu continues to make more films like this one.

I saw this movie with a friend at a benefit screening in LA a few months ago, and for days after the screening I was still thinking about it. The acting is superb, especially the lead actor who plays the role of GABE. I saw a lot of myself in that character, and that's what this movie does, it makes you think about yourself and your life whether you want to or not. The scenes of the failing marriage between the lead actress and her husband are painful to watch because of their realism. But the film isn't just a pure drama, the sex scenes and game playing are erotic and dangerous, without being graphic. The entire production is very original from beginning to end and is really what independent films are supposed to be about. This is one of the movies that's an experience that can enlighten. I encourage anyone to see it for themselves when it gets released to theaters.

In Los Angeles, Irene (Charis Michelsen) works at an advertising agency and lives a boring, loveless and sexually unsatisfying marriage with her husband Carl (Lee Holmes). When she meets the mysterious stranger Gabe (Emmanuel Xuereb), they have an erotic love affair breaking into houses of strangers and stealing their lives for a moment. Both are trying to escape from their pasts with a game that pushes them to the limit of their relationship. But reality is there and can not be forgotten.

"Erosion" is a dramatic "unerotic"-thriller about infidelity of a sexually unsatisfied woman with a promising beginning but a boring development and conclusion. One meaning of erosion is "a gradual decline of something"; in this case, of the morality of the lead character Irene. The plot keeps sexual tension but goes nowhere with the non- explicit game of the lovers. The director Ann Lu is not bold enough and in the end, "Erosion" is neither a drama or romance nor an erotic thriller. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Desejo Selvagem" ("Wild Desire")