Lust, Caution

You know, I never thought I'd ever say this, but there's too much sex in the Ang Lee film Lust, Caution. It actually detracts from the overall movie. Go figure.

The story, if you're unfamiliar with it, follows a university student who is convinced by her thespian classmates to play the role of an upper-class woman in order to seduce a Chinese official collaborating with the Japanese occupation, and lure him into an assassination. The initial plot fails, but several years later she encounters one of those students--this time officially working with the resistance--who recruits her for the same plot, redux.

It's a two-and-a-half hour movie that's about 30 minutes too long. The first 90 minutes could even be considered PG-13, after which point there's much nudity and intense sexuality, earning the film's NC-17 rating. Which is a shame, because after a certain point, the scenes don't add anything to the story. Yes, the collaborator is cruel and misogynistic. Yes, the girl's spirit and self-respect are shattered by his treatment of her. Yes, there's a kind of "Stockholm Syndrome" going on here. But that point gets bludgeoned home over and over again. The whole thing could've been wrapped up in 120 minutes, gotten a hard R rating and done decent box office--as it is otherwise an intense, moody piece. Kind of like Lee's earlier The Ice Storm, only with murder and guns.

The first half of the film was so comparatively tame--other than one drawn-out killing--that I got the impression Lee had set out to make and "erotic" film, then belatedly realized he'd neglected to include any eroticism. To make up for that, he doubled up on the naked stuff in the remainder of the film, and the result is wildly uneven. Which is too bad, but then again, he's the auteur and I'm just a guy with a blog.

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