Review of Between Your Legs

Introduction

It says a lot about a film`s decidedly unrevealing and hopelessly covert plot twists when, after watching it from the very beginning to the bitter end, you have to logon to the information superhighway and find out what-on-God`s-earth was supposed to be going on. It`s all fine and dandy being `a bit clever`, but when the self styled intellectuals amongst the audience don`t even get it, then you`ve taken a wrong turn somewhere along the line.

`Between your legs` initially starts as a channel 5-esc soft porn flick in Spanish. The idea of several characters being drawn together via a sex-addicts anonymous meeting has `Red Shoe Diaries` written all over it (in cheap lipstick). However, things delve much further into Hitchcock territory after the semi-erotic opening, and develop into a full blown psycho thriller. Qu`est que c`est?

So, in the manner of all good (and dreadful) films of this ilk, we get the obligatory main protagonist Javier (Javier Bardem) who appears to be hiding a deep secret, his sublimely sexy fling Miranda (Victoria Abril), who appears to be hiding a deep secret, and an additional murky fringe character who, rather predictably, appears to be hiding a deep secret. Throw in some police who `want answers … now`, a few naughty sex tapes and a superfluous storyline about a homosexual man who gets ignored, and `Roberto`s your uncle`. It`s a far cry from the mechanics of launching an astrological vessel into orbit above the earth

Video

The whole film looks perfectly adequate in its Widescreen 2.35:1 Anamorphic presentation, although the transfer does suffer in places.

There is nothing really to define the visual character of the movie as such - no big explosions, vibrant colours or breathtaking landscapes. Yet, similarly, there is no reflection of urban character either - whilst the film takes place in the city of Madrid, there is no clever use of the city as a beauty to behold, as you would find in the works of, say, Woody Allen. Director Manuel Gomez Pereira has chosen to concentrate on the complexities of the people rather than pay much attention to the world which they inhabit.

Audio

The Dolby Digital (5.1) and Dolby Digital (2.0) Stereo soundtracks are fit for purpose technically, but there isn`t anything that grabs you as being particularly impressive about it.

Features

The extra features are a `Making of …` featurette, various trailers, TV spots and the inevitable stills gallery.

As expected, the `making of` featurette is the only thing worth watching, and then only if you actually got to the end of the film and were still interested. More likely than not, you`ll remove the disc from the player with a satisfied look on your face and resolve never to bother with it again.

Conclusion

Considering that `Between your legs` aspires to the work of Alfred Hitchcock, and falls spectacularly foul of its mark, the words of Alfred himself seem apt. The great thriller maker (and seeker) once commented that "The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder." Rather coincidentally, the point at which I needed the toilet and the moment when the film changed from intriguing to moribund occurred simultaneously. After 45 minutes.

Up to this point, webs are weaved, characters are given an interesting spin and everything is, in general, pretty well oiled - in short, the stage is set for a much more satisfying `rest of film` than the version which actually presents itself. It`s fair to say that a feature length picture would probably fall foul of the trades descriptions act if it clocked in at only three quarters of an hour, which means that instead of ending the film there, the Producers and Director should really have endeavoured to make it, well, better.

That the picture, post-`good bit`, aspires so much to a straight to DVD American film is indicative of its flaws. First of all, the macho man of Javier, over sexed and under affable, hardly provides much of a `hero` - OK, so he`s sufficiently good looking (think Benicio Del Toro, who Bardem is strangely lined up to star with in revolutionary biopic `Che`) but lacks any real depth. Secondly, the plot becomes so incredibly self-involved that, when the `final twist` becomes evident, there is no revelatory feeling, just a vague hope that you can turn it off in a few minutes.

Just one more quote, this time from the `Usbourne Children`s Book of Pessimistic Anatomy`;

`Between your legs` is something complicated and sexual, although it unfortunately becomes harder to understand as time passes.`

Pretty much spot on I think.