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A James Spader Mullet and a Great Movie

A couple is having difficulty in their marriage. No wonder, since she is not sexually attracted to him and he is sleeping with her sister. Then we enter his old college friend, who is no longer anything like him and has developed a weird fetish for filming women. Sometimes people break down.I have heard this is the film that made Soderbergh's career and also pushed James Spader, Peter Gallagher and Andie MacDowell. I can see why. MacDowell has a very reserved character here, yet her range is quite good. Gallagher plays a jerk, and his eyebrows are half the size they are in "While You Were Sleeping" (I guess they grow when you get famous). Spader, who excels in such films as "Stargate" and "The Secretary", is at home here -- the nerdy, yet somehow attractive introvert and minimalist. He is in the late 1980s and early 1990s what Adam Brody is for us today (2007).While much of the plot revolves around the affair, that is not really very interesting. A man cheating on his wife isn't really strange and even a man sleeping with his wife' sister isn't unheard of (though a bit gross in my mind). Spader's character shakes things up... the "videotape" third of the title is where the movie stands out from other such films. Confessions, secrets and intimacy over a home video system... no other film does this. And maybe you'd say "why would they?" but when you seem how raw the emotion is when done by home video, you'll see what the big screen cannot offer.I can't pinpoint what sold this film for me. I just became very engrossed in it, with its character-driven plot (and with such great actors, there's no need to worry if a character-driven plot will work. It will). Some parts are predictable (you know in the first few minutes the marriage is falling apart), but much of the film is anyone's guess: who will get punished, will new love spring up? It's a very beautiful expose of the human drama and of human emotional versatility.I recommend this film to you. Check it out... probably not when the kids are around (although the language and nudity are surprisingly tame for a film with this subject matter). It's probably not what you expect it to be...

yuppie vs weirdo

It is really funny that James Spader, who has made a career of playing yuppie bastards, got an award for playing Graham, an anti-yuppie, a weirdo (the yuppie bastard here is played by Peter Gallagher, whose perfect performance is too often overlooked). This is Spader at his very best, as you never saw him before, if you had noticed him before, that is. Although, when you look back, Spader always seems to have given his characters a little freaky edge (something about his dreamy look, or his slow drawl); one of my favourite scenes in this film is the one in which Graham explains his one-key theory to his one-time buddy over dinner, and you sense that they have really nothing in common any more. Graham stands next to Hippolyte's Girardot's character in Eric Rochant's "Un monde sans pitié" and J.P. Belmondo's character in Godard's "A bout de souffle" for me; even next to Holden Caulfield; he is unique and real; I just like him, and not just because of the sound his shoes make while he walks to the bathroom (false alarm) on his first visit to Ann.

Monumental Debut from Soderbergh

I owned Sex, Lies and Videotape for almost a month before I finally watched it and it has grown as one of my favorite movies. There really isn't alot of great cinematography, but the actual plot, and the music is astoudingly perfect.Although some may find it a bit strange, or even threatening that our protagonist Graham must film the women he meets in order to achieve any sexual satisfaction...even those who don't agree with his ethics will find themselves cheering for him, and hoping that he can overcome his Problem. ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES I've ever seen. 10

The film delivers what it says in its title but gives so much more in terms camera work, acting and subject matter.

This is the film, for me, that cements my opinion on Steven Soderbergh. I saw where he was coming from when he made Traffic, even if it wasn't that great to me and really enjoyed Ocean's Eleven not for what the story was but for the way it was told. Here, Soderbergh has made a film and a debut film it must be said that shows he not only understands film but also how to unwind a story, give us characters who are believable and how to present the action on screen through the compositions; that is that he knows how to use the camera.Sex, Lies, and Videotape is an example of how to utilise a basic domestic problem with a relationship in a film but give it a voyeuristic twist, artistic camera-work and how to manipulated time and space. There are people who study voyeurism in film like it's a religion and camcorders in a film is a sure fire way to get those sorts of people excited but that's just the beginning of Sex, Lies, & Videotape. The film uses a straightforward problem as its drive for the narrative; that problem is a married man having an affair. What follows is a reunion with a friend called Graham Dalton (Spader) that the husband will really wish he hadn't set up as Dalton brings not only voyeurism but a threat to the exposure of the affair. Ann Mullany (MacDowell), whose husband John (Gallagher) is having the affair is presented as a shy and straightforward woman perhaps living an American Dream of her own: nice house, money, food on the table, etc. but despite these humane and friendly traits, she is in a position she doesn't know about – she may not like sex that much but John does and with people other than herself. This means these two people are sort of binary opposites to one another and yet they are joined by marriage – an accident waiting to happen so already; Sex, Lies, and Videotape is creating a pressure cooker of events and characters who look set to explode once the dirty gets out.I mentioned that I thought Soderbergh's camera-work was really impressive in this film and that is a true statement. So often camera-work can go unnoticed or without acclaim but the way it's utilised in the film oozes of class. Take the scene in which some characters are arguing at a dinner table; the argument ends with a long take showing us the climax of it. One character is in the kitchen and we see this thanks to a shot in the corner of the room where the ceiling meets the wall; almost from the stairs if there were any there. This is the sort of angle you'd get from a close circuit television (CCTV) camera or a surveillance camera you get in security rooms: we are watching the argument from on high, surveying the area as if we have a link with the world in which the film is being set; we are observant through the most voyeuristic shot possible: the security camera shot since when you're watching someone through one of those, you can see them but they can't see you.Another incident occurs when John is on the phone to the girl he's having an affair with and yet the camera is set up to just include a photograph of Ann who's staring at John the whole time he's on the phone organising an illegal get-together. Not only does this tell us that John's wrong doing seemingly leaves him with a clear conscience as he talks to his mistress but also gives us enough information to have us form a very negative opinion of the character. Sex, Lies, and Videotape is also very good at combining genres since its brief pauses for scenes with the therapist and the barfly character act as pit stops away from the home and away from the lust and distrust. Not only this but they act as a good reason for humour and for Ann to tell us as well as the therapist what's she's thinking. We may ask the questions the therapist asks; we (the males, at least) may also have tried what the barfly tries and offer her some relief even though the barfly has no idea what she's been through – we do. This is why the barfly isn't put across as a complete lout: just a friendly looking and soft spoken person looking for companionship which is at a far-fetched level, exactly what Ann is. Sex, Lies, and Videotape is a fantastic film to look into and a film that will live on for its content especially its acting; Spader in particular who comes across as a nervous, perhaps too confident guy who has his own personal ways of turning himself on involving woman and cameras but the film is great for its subject matter, the way it handles its subject matter and the way it presents its subject matter.

Honesty...

Now that the movie has been around for a decade and change, we know all about the seductively suggestive atmosphere and the mystery of the James Spader character. These, then, are no longer the most interesting things about the picture. It's a film about honesty -- honesty in conversation, anyway -- about how the Spader and Giacomo characters, who always say what they mean or ask what they want to know with frankness and clarity, bounce off the repression of MacDowell and the lies of Gallagher.What's fascinating are the ways characters express themselves as conversation moves to more intense places. The mystery over what makes Spader tick is not quite as interesting, and the conclusion, which needs to investigate him and find some kind of conclusion, cannot be as absorbing as the intensely frank and striking buildup.

A Marvelous and Multi-Faceted Film

I've had a personal journey with this film that is quite unique in my own experience, but perhaps not unique among others who have enjoyed it. I first watched sex, lies & videotape in a theater and was bored by it. Perhaps the title had me looking for more explicit elements in the film that just aren't there. As other reviews here point out, the film is far more subtle than its bold title would suggest.


Months later I was in a video store and decided to give the movie another try (my companion when I first saw it had loved it, so I figured it was worth a shot). Upon the second viewing, I really liked it, appreciating more in depth the interaction of the characters, the challenges (mostly internal) that they face, and the story lines of the film.


Several months passed after this second viewing and again I returned to it at the video store, being one who gravitates toward old favorites more often than not. Watching the film for the third time, I found myself appreciating the film as a love story as tender and touching as others I'd seen, though far more quirky than your typical love story plot.

The next time I picked up the box in the video store (yes, I did eventually just BUY it!), I noted a review that proclaimed the movie as "hilarious", which really caught my attention. Here I had seen the movie three times, in three different ways and yet I could not remember at any time finding anything remotely funny about it. So again I rented it and, yes, found myself laughing out loud at times during the movie. Don't get me wrong, it will never be mistaken for Caddyshack, but it does have its own quirky sense of humor.

Now, the movie is naturally among my all-time top five. Soderbergh has gone on to become a great director that at times is very heavy-handed artistically (e.g. Limey, Traffic), while at other times letting the story or the actors lead they way (e.g. Erin Brockovich). In this first critical and commercial success, however, it is his writing that is perhaps most impressive.

Learning to live and love again

A strange, but very rewarding movie. It opens with Ann (Andie MacDowell) talking to her therapist; sex doesn't mean much to her, she's repressed about it, etc. It just so happens that her husband John (Peter Gallagher) is having an affair with her sister Cynthia (Laura Giacomo). Along comes an old friend of John's, Graham (James Spader). He tells Ann that he's impotent, that he gets off by watching videos he's made of women talking about sex. Ann is repulsed and attracted to him at the same time, while hot-to-trot Cynthia goes right after him and makes a tape with him. Ann is shocked, then discovers the affair her husband is having, and decides to go to Graham, too - and makes her own video. Actually she makes a video of him: she gets him to confess that he does what he does because he is a liar about his impotence. She gets him to make love to her, she leaves sleezeball John, and the movie ends with Ann and Graham together. At first I didn't like the major scene with Ann and Graham, but after a second viewing I found it to be much more coherent and interesting. Graham has a neat little secret that has caused him to arrange his life so he'd never have to feel again. Ann changes all that, and it was great seeing them together at the end of the movie. An intelligent, well-acted picture; definitely worth a watch.

a must for internet users

I believe Soderbergh set the rules for a sub-genre with this film. The discomfort of converting to simulacrums of women (as opposed to having real sex) is something men began to experience more and more in the last decades. To me, this phenomenon forms the true spine of the theme for SLAV. Though not "perfect" in terms of storytelling, SLAV is both intellectual and entertaining. Watch it! It's about "watching"...

This was definitely something different...

Although this film is low budget and somewhat outdated, it is still intriguing and captures the attention of the viewer. Despite being slow in some spots, it has a great deal of depth and feeling to it and provokes a lot of thought.

The story revolves around an uptight woman named Ann, whose husband is cheating on her with her own sister. When one of the husband's old college friends, Graham (James Spader), comes into the picture, he gets mixed up in the scenario and finds out information that he really shouldn't know. Because he is impotent, Graham can only find sexual pleaure through taping women talking about their sexual experiences. When he interviews Ann's sister, Cynthia, she reveals information about the affair. I won't talk about what happens after that, to avoid spoiling the movie.

I wasn't too impressed by the acting in this film. With the exception of James Spader, the cast was nothing spectacular. Spader's performace as Graham was terrific, as are all of his performances, and he is the reason why this film worked. His character is pathetically vulnerable and he does a fantastic job with the role.

Overall, I would recommend this film as something to check out. You probably won't be blown away, but it may make you think about your personal feelings and relationships in a new way.

my privite - favorite- film....

before leaving my comment, I want to tell everyone will read this I'm not American, stricktly, I'm not good at English. so If you read this writing and feel funny, understand me. when I watch this film for the first time, I cried. 4 kind of man is represented interlocking relasionship, even in this country it can be experienced.....I felt human solitary is same and his(her?) wound which cause isolation should be cured any way. but how? this film give some tips about the question, that is 'confession'. individual private secret or sin, and his condition.. / unperfact and woundful human-being is... still precious only because of his existense. I'm sure I'm not a Existensist but I Know the power of the communication. Honest communication helps me recover my own preciousness(?) given from Lord. In this film, I couldn't agree of the result. but "result" can open to the viewer. in any other movies, It can be, I think. any way If you watch this, you must move/ sex- relationship remind me of wang-ka-wai's film. how about you? whole- silent, cool movie thanks for reading me!

Plot is slim, but film is emotionally driven...

Intelligent, surprisingly enveloping movie is one that sneaked up on a lot of people in 1989, and has that effect on the unsuspecting today. A somewhat-frigid young woman becomes fascinated with her husband's friend, an emotionally confused man whose hobby is videotaping sexual conversations with women. The film takes about a quarter of an hour to kick in, yet once the character motivations become more clear it's quite an engrossing experience, a movie that unfolds rather like a novel. For those who stick with it, an intense drama peopled with some sordid characters who are nevertheless brilliantly portrayed by the cast. Andie MacDowell, as the wife who is so homespun she can't even swear, has rarely been so complex and affecting on film. **1/2 from ****

One of the worst films I have ever seen

Along with LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL, A BEAUTIFUL MIND, DOGMA, FREE ENTERPRISE, and 20 DATES, this is easily one of the worst films I have ever seen.

Like all of Soderbergh's films, SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE is VERY conservative. It is conformist kitch that legislates in the name of the "normal."

James Spader is a scopophiliac who learns to give up his fetish, throws away his videotape collection, and is normalized at the end of the film.

The film's politically offensive and repressive character makes it even more unwatchable than OCEAN'S ELEVEN.

After SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE, Soderbergh would go on to distort, commercialize, and sensationalize Kafka's life in the disgusting KAFKA.

See Schrader's AUTO-FOCUS instead!---a film that isn't afraid of exploring human "perversity"!

A Nice Love Story....A Perverted Love Story.

I saw this film Yesterday, wondering what this was about, From the title I thought it would be a porn film acting as an art film. I saw it an actually liked it. It seemed to me like a play with four main characters who just talk. I also saw it as a perverted love story. From the gist of it it is about a husband and wife John (Peter gallagher) and Ann (Andie Mcdowal?) who unsatisfied with their marriage, John is having an affair with Ann's Sister and Ann has never been sexually satisfied. Graham, John's old school chum comes to stay with them and Ann becomes interested in him and learns that he too has a sexual problem, he is impotent. She and the audience later learns that the only way he....gets on is by watching tapes of him asking women questions of their sexual history. After that everything unravels.For you to go see. SPOILER: But I liked that under all these weird circumstances they (ann and graham) find each other and eventually end up together and overcome those problems they had. I again, am very surprised on how good this film is. check plus for steven soderbergh.

Insightful, a glance at inhibitions and the power of truth.

When I first saw this film, I was thinking bad thoughts: this film isn't going to be very good, but rather sensationalistic. Well, I was wrong in the most delightful wa. This film, although about sex in different schools of thought, is actually about finding the self and rediscovering a security with who you are. Just ask Graham (James Spader), who is impotent, but rather than concealing the fact with shame, he discusses it with his friend's wife (Andie MacDowell), with the same comfort and truth that he has seen in his several interviews with women. Entering into three private lives, Graham becomes an audience to a wife's paranoia and inhibition, a husband's infedility and dishonesty, and a sister's shallow standards and immaturity. The end result gives a revelation to everyone, even to Graham himself, and sex becomes more truthful and passionate (to some), and more condemning and devastating (to others) then anyone could ever imagine. A good film about being mature in the midst of the most ruthless immaturity.

From Movie Stars to TV Stars

I saw this movie years ago and forgot about it. I fially found it on Showtime On Demand Saturday May 14th 2005. It is amazing these people went from this sexual film noir to eventually do streamlined tv programs. James Spader now does Boston Legal. Peter Gallagher does the OC. Andie macDowell does lots of tv especially the Hallmark Movie with Rose Odonnell. And the San Giacomo chick has done sitcoms. I find the whole thing amazing!!

A funny family movie

Yes, that pretty much sums it up. I really thought 'Sex, Lügen und Video' was an all time low, that could not be surpassed by anything. Alas, I was wrong. Before I watched this a friend of mine joked that they are going to use the jokes which were too bad for 'Sex, Lügen und Video' in this movie and THEY ACTUALLY DID. The humor was limited to farting, kissing the butt of an annoying, talking baby and punching people in the face (there was more, but that's the level we are talking about). If whoever is responsible for writing this crap reads this review: A JOKE Doesn't BECOME BETTER IF YOU REPEAT IT OVER AND OVER AGAIN. This time I'm pretty much certain that it's impossible to make a movie with worse jokes. After it was over i felt physically sick.What else is there to say? If you liked 'Sex, Lügen und Video' and 'Less Undt Zero', then, by all means, go and watch this movie, or, even better, help to clean up the gene pool and shoot yourself. Now I'm going to check if I can somehow sue Sven Sonderbergt for crimes against humanity in The Hague. what were they thinking? You have to be a REALLY great Sonderberg-Fan to enjoy this movie.If there is ANY other movie playing in your local cinema do not go and watch that instead, it simply cant be any better.

Film Reflection

Was not sure what to expect. I think Andie M and James S gave brilliant performances and one couldn't enjoy watching them more. Andi as Ann did a great job of seeming lost yet strong. Spader as Graham gave me the chills, he was so vulnerable, open, and endearing. I loved how he refused to hide his true persona. As for L. San Giacomo she was alright, worked well with the material she had, ditto for Gallagher as Jon. See this first Sodebergh film and you won't be disappointed.

Nothing Nude; Yet Something Lewd

I saw this movie yesterday with lot of anticipation, for it is the first venture for Steven Soderbergh. His Traffic was a wonderful movie that captured the essence of drug dealing from the views of diverse people, from mongers to parents. And of course Erin Brockovich was outstanding too. But this is a very different plot, which revolves around four people and the lack of communication between them, their lives, their lies and a voyeur's videotapes.

Ann is pent-up sexually and her husband John has an affair with her sister, of course without ann's knowledge. In the meantime, Graham, a college friend of John comes into the lives of the three and changes it rather dramatically. Everyone lies about their interpersonal lives and Graham happens to drive the two women out to reveal their secrets and change their lives with the women agreeing to talk about sexual relations. He videotapes them. Admitting that he is an impotent in the presence of a girl, Graham gets excited by watching the videos of women talking and doing whatever they want to do.

Alhough the characters are not necessarily the best choices, in my opinion (I am not a great fan of Andie MacDowell by the way), they blend into their assigned roles pretty well. Its indeed amazing that the movie could be achieved without any nudity. Awkward and repelling, nevertheless well-made with the Soderbergh's touch.

Mildly interesting cover of significant real life problem

Married John Mullany (Gallagher) is having an affair with his wife's sister Cynthia (Giacomo) whilst the arrival of his old friend creates problems.When looking at romantic hits in the last 20 years we have seen a fair share of ups and downs. From the clichéd look at happiness and love in Richard Curtis' Love Actually to the intimate look at how friendship affects relationships in Rob Reiner's When Harry met Sally we have seen highs and lows at an important part of how love and lust affect our lives. Recently the trend has lowered where everything is set in stone such as Hitch or Intolerable Cruelty. Good films with humour but an inevitable conclusion. So where does Steven Soderbergh's picture rank?If, in the first half an hour, you become bored with the obvious predictability and over dramatic inclusion of Andie MacDowell's marriage then just think of this as build up for something mercifully better. This opening with MacDowell's protagonist Ann conversing with her therapist is frankly boring. Then we see her husband having an affair with her very own sister. So already this feels like an episode from Coronation Street. Graham's introduction though at first ultimately boring becomes interesting once we see his bizarre hobby. Finally the script all starts to make sense. This boring build up layers the foundation for Grahams' inclusion and the implication of sex and the significance of happiness in adversity. Sex is the most covered topic out of the three keywords but for some reason we barely see any so the fact that it is debated so much but shown minimally begs the question of the significance and the lack of enthusiasm for it. Nevertheless there is no shaking the subject is relative, whilst combining mildly interesting plots about affairs, unemployment and perversion.Yes, it's soapy and you pick up clues as easy as Graham picks up women but this is almost irrelative thanks to a sharp performance by Spader. He steels the light in every scene, though hardly difficult next to MacDowell's egregious act at loneliness. Gallagher and Giacomo have their moments too. During the opening stages the sound does not go in sync with the actors. The constant use of narration is overplayed and just seeing all these problems with the production does not help the film's supposed cause to preach and entertain. Compared to other classics this 1989 romance has its moments with its main issue but ultimately this is predictable and not really worth the hassle when other such romances as Rob Reiner's masterpiece or American Beauty demonstrate how to handle sex without being predictable or soapy.

Being happy isn't all that great. I mean... the last time I was... really happy... I got really fat.

Oscar nominations (Soderbergh), BAFTA nominations (Soderbergh, Laura San Giacomo), Golden Globe nominations (Andie MacDowell, San Giacomo, Soderbergh) , César nominations (Soderbergh), and Cannes awards (James Spader, Soderbergh) for just about everyone in this film except Peter Gallagher.Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Erin Brockovich) wrote and directed this film, his first feature-length effort.It's hard to determine who played the better part, Andie MacDowell or Laura San Giacomo. I happen to be prejudiced towards one over the other, so I have a hard time making a pick. They were both fabulous. The repartee between them was hilarious as one was having an affair with the other's husband.The way that MacDowell turned the session with Spader around was fascinating. The sex became secondary to the conversation and was the best part of the film.Outstanding acting by Spader and MacDowell.