By chance, I came upon this movie last month on the Sundance Channel while flipping through the movie channels after midnight. Spanish filmmaker Julio Medem (Sex and Lucia) is known for his strange and erotically themed films, and this one proved to be right in his genre. Reading many on-line reviews, I found people either love it or hate it.

Those who are 13 years old mentally and looking for a little girl-on-girl action will be bored out of their minds. The people who will find it fascinating are those more interested in exploring the dynamic process of the white lies people tell on a first date to impress a person they intend never to see again. Because of all the shifting from lies to truth, the plot is a little hard to follow, so stay with me here; this is the basic plot:

Two young women, tomboyish Spanish brunette Alba (Elena Anaya) and lithe Russian blonde Natasha (Natasha Yarovenko), meet on their final night as tourists in Rome. They disclose just enough about themselves to intrigue the other. When Alba invites her new friend back to her hotel room, Natasha is at first reluctant, but eventually agrees. In the atmospheric confines of Alba’s room, they talk, flirt, tease, and eventually seduce each other. Over the course of the next few hours, they share stories of their lives, periodically stopping to order room service, illustrate their points with pictures on the Internet and enjoy each other's bodies. As their trust of each other grows, the stories change, and fabrications initially used to impress the other are replaced by revealing truths. All this happens while both women are completely and nonchalantly nude for most of the film.

Many moviegoers found it hard to separate what was truth and what wasn’t. A few compared the plot to something David Lynch (Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive) would write. One male critic even wrote that the movie had “way too many feelings in it.” Huh? A few times the women speak in their native Spanish or Russian (no subtitles), and we are required to watch what they are doing in order to understand what is going on. (I guess Americans need subtitles or they are lost in the world.)

Several reviews said the symbolism of the art paintings on the wall, one of Cupid drawing his arrow and another of Renaissance couples, confused many who saw the movie, especially when the arrow symbolically pierces Alba’s heart. I think what Director Medem is trying to say is that “love is love” regardless of nationality, cultural background, or gender preference. In that sense the movie is strikingly post-modern in its theme, and it is easy to see why some moviegoers just looking for a little lesbian sex flick would be terribly disappointed and confused.

One criticism I agree with was the overuse of the vocal theme ballad, “Loving Strangers” by Russian Red. If you have not heard of this Spanish band, I suggest you look them up on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgbcXig1TZ8.) Discovering their haunting music was worth the whole movie.