LIE WITH ME (Clement Virgo). 92 minutes. Opens Friday (November 18). For venues and times, see Movie Times. Rating: NNN
Rating: NNN
Lie With Me frequently does just that. It lies there grinding its hips, thrusting its message of female erotic empowerment a bit too insistently onto us.
Up to a point, that’s just fine. Its libidinous characters are attractive enough. Dreamily narrating her story, Leila ( Lauren Lee Smith ) rhapsodizes about her life, which includes lots of porn-watching and quick hits of anonymous sex with guys in Queen Street bars, parties and even (eww!) Annex children’s playgrounds.
When she meets David ( Eric Balfour , from Six Feet Under), however, something changes. She wants more than sex. Maybe it’s because her parents (a wasted Kate Lynch and Ron White ) are breaking up, or maybe it’s because David is a sensitive soul who reads Hesse and takes care of his elderly dad ( Don Francks ).
Clement Virgo ‘s film, loosely based on his partner Tamara Faith Berger ‘s erotic novel of the same name, captures the sultry feel of Toronto summer days and nights, and the hazy, vague yearnings of young adulthood. The sex scenes – and there are many – are very explicit, with the actors fearlessly letting loose.
Too bad there’s not a bit more going on in Leila’s mind. The breathy voice-overs don’t help much. It seems a missed opportunity that co-writers Berger and Virgo didn’t play with another meaning of the title.
If Leila’s spoken narrative had twisted truths or shown us things we didn’t already see, that would have provided an ironic counterpoint and added more edge to a film that’s trying so hard to be bad.
