British couple Fiona and Nigel Dobson are sailing to Istanbul en route to India. They encounter a beautiful French woman...
I find this film very difficult to judge or even to categorize. It is clearly a Roman Polanski film, as evidenced by the casting of Emmanuelle Seigner and the depraved sexual situations (a golden shower, lesbianism, and some strange pig mask). Having known Peter Coyote primarily from "A Walk to Remember", it was quite a shock to hear him talk so dirty, drink milk from a woman's breast and engage in oral sex. Well played, Pete.
Hugh Grant is the main character, despite the fact he has far less screen time than Coyote or Seigner. He appears in the wraparound section, with most of the film being a flashback. But the basic plot revolves around the idea of fidelity -- will Nigel (Grant) cheat on his wife with this foreign beauty? He has her husband's permission, but does he have the disloyal drive to follow through? (This gets more complex as the film progresses, but you really need not know more just yet.) While I have found Seigner attractive before, this film does not present her well in my opinion. Exotic, yes. Sexy, no. But the men in the film would disagree.
There could be some discussion about what "bitter moon" means. The phrase is never uttered in the film or clearly explained. There is a scene that features a moon that might be called bitter (it tastes of "poison" to one person and "sweet" to another). Does this suggest that a bitter moon would be a situation where two people share very different outlooks or viewpoints? Perhaps. Or it could simply be the reverse of a honeymoon.
If we were to list Polanski's films from best to worst, this would appear somewhere in the middle. Perhaps the lower middle. By no means does it achieve the level of his masterpieces, but it does not come up short like "Cul-de-Sac" (though that film has its merits, too). The film is great as a character study or as a discussion of love and relationships, but it drags enough at times that it cannot be called flawless. Grant fans will be disappointed, but Polanski fans ought to give it a fair shot.
I find this film very difficult to judge or even to categorize. It is clearly a Roman Polanski film, as evidenced by the casting of Emmanuelle Seigner and the depraved sexual situations (a golden shower, lesbianism, and some strange pig mask). Having known Peter Coyote primarily from "A Walk to Remember", it was quite a shock to hear him talk so dirty, drink milk from a woman's breast and engage in oral sex. Well played, Pete.
Hugh Grant is the main character, despite the fact he has far less screen time than Coyote or Seigner. He appears in the wraparound section, with most of the film being a flashback. But the basic plot revolves around the idea of fidelity -- will Nigel (Grant) cheat on his wife with this foreign beauty? He has her husband's permission, but does he have the disloyal drive to follow through? (This gets more complex as the film progresses, but you really need not know more just yet.) While I have found Seigner attractive before, this film does not present her well in my opinion. Exotic, yes. Sexy, no. But the men in the film would disagree.
There could be some discussion about what "bitter moon" means. The phrase is never uttered in the film or clearly explained. There is a scene that features a moon that might be called bitter (it tastes of "poison" to one person and "sweet" to another). Does this suggest that a bitter moon would be a situation where two people share very different outlooks or viewpoints? Perhaps. Or it could simply be the reverse of a honeymoon.
If we were to list Polanski's films from best to worst, this would appear somewhere in the middle. Perhaps the lower middle. By no means does it achieve the level of his masterpieces, but it does not come up short like "Cul-de-Sac" (though that film has its merits, too). The film is great as a character study or as a discussion of love and relationships, but it drags enough at times that it cannot be called flawless. Grant fans will be disappointed, but Polanski fans ought to give it a fair shot.