Lie With Me (2005)- NR

Lie With Me is a raw, bold and controversial film. Emily and I found the sex arousing and the characters complex. Netflix's http://www.netflix.com/ 40,000 viewers rated the film 3 out of 5 stars on average, however only 30% of journalism reviews http://www.rottentomatoes.com/ recommended the film. Nonetheless, we highly recommend it.

In this film, we are treated to the inner private thought of Leila, played by Lauren Lee Smith. Her thoughts are about sex- how to get it, how to get it often, and how to get it on her terms. Leila has found it easy to have sex with many men and nearly every man. However, she becomes despondent after having frequent sex with a man named David, played by Eric Balfour of HBO Six Feet Under fame. This relationship causes the blood to move from her genitals to her heart. She now asks herself the question, "how do you have sex with someone you are in love with?"

Lie With Me is a highly erotic film with explicit sexual scenes. It is also a movie with an intense character study of two people who can make passionate erotic sex but become anguished when faced with the opportunity to make love. We meet Leila and David at a seedy nightclub party. This is a place where the music and the bodies are hot. They are with other partners and the foursome escapes to the alley to elevate their hot dancing to hot sex. Leila and David become more aroused exhibiting themselves for each other then the sex they are having with their partners. We follow Leila and David over the next weeks as they engage each other's bodies. Their passionate sex surprisingly turns to affection. Each is also struggling with death and divorce in their families. Maybe this contributes to them allowing affection to sneak-up amidst all their sex. Regardless, it produces more pain then they could imagine.

The frequent romance film shows a couple falling in love and then awkwardly and fearfully moves from affection to sex. Lie With Me moves the couple from erotic sex to awkward and fearful affection. The sex is hot and very real. In one scene the camera shoots from just above Leila's head as she lies in bed. We essentially watch from her eyes as David undresses her and works his way up her legs with his licks and kisses. We watch real oral sex as he licks and opens her labia with his mouth. The camera them moves up and rotates to her face without cutting from the scene. We watch her face as she moves to an orgasm that we know is coming from real sex.

Apart from the sex, there are two reasons to see this film. First, Lauren Lee Smith boldly reverses gender roles by playing a demanding, controlling and even at times, abusive sexual partner. She skillfully develops a female version of a character that changes from being centered only on her genital pleasures to one open to the possibility of a relationship. Second, this movie does an excellent work of filming the nude male. We see all sides. We see the erect penis and the non-erect penis. We see David lovingly bathing his elderly nude (and yes also with a penis) father, shortly before his death. There are so many films where only nude women are shown. This film showing nude men, is refreshing and reason alone to see this film. Lie With Me would be a very good movie without the explicit sex. With the sex, it is an excellent movie.