Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Finding Bliss: pornography in the making

Cast: Leelee Sobieski, Matthew Davis, Donnamarie Recco, Denise Richards

FINDING BLISS, a romantic comedy that explores the adult film industry through the eyes of an idealistic 25 year-old award-winning film school grad, Jody Balaban (LEELEE SOBIESKI).

With sex as the landscape and pornography the issue to be explored, punctuated with visual images that manage to stay on the date-flick side of the divide, it is hard to imagine how this film will not make back the money spent on its creation.

An interesting film that addresses issues rarely spoken about even in those private moments when "the girls" get together: the fear of inability to perform is not limited to men, not in this country, this century. It is a universal fear but women rarely admit to feelings traditionally attributed to men. In Finding Bliss this curtain of silence is lifted and the "good girl", the Virgin of choice, is exposed as a frightened child trying to survive in an adult world.

The film is compelling in content but is amateurish in construction and weak in acting. There is so much good and so much lacking in this film that I recommend it with strong reservations.

Hopefully writer/director Julie Davis will learn more about filmmaking before she attempts to bring her compelling and important ideas onto the screen again.

Release Date: June 4th, 2010 (limited)

No comments: