Director Wayne Wang’s unreserved take on a specific slice of American intimacy in an age of computer obsessed males and post feminist nihilistic females rings with a perfectly hollow pitch that’s a digital video punch to the solar plexus.
Set primarily in Las Vegas, Wang ("The Chinese Box") explores the ramifications of a sexual arrangement between Richard Longman (Peter Sarsgaard), a newly wealthy twentysomething computer engineer, and Florence (Molly Parker).
Florence is a drummer in an all chick punk band, and stripper at a lap dance bar called "Pandora’s Box."
Shot entirely on digital video using different types of cameras, the movie is a modern cross between "Carnal Knowledge" and "Last Tango In Paris" for the dot com generation.
Without missing a beat, Richard and Flo settle into a short and doomed affair that brings fresh emotional scars to their already damaged identities.
It’s a simple, straightforward, sexually explicit movie that lets its characters make gross mistakes that audiences will interpret with all of the empathy and alienation that these two brave actors allow.
Wayne Wang’s non-judgmental style lets the characters breath in a way that opens the movie up to repeated viewing although it is by no means a comfortable film.
Not Rated. 88 mins.
