Movie review by Neil Sadler
Starring: Lauren Lee Smith, Eric Balfour, Polly Shannon, Mayko Nguyen
Director: Clement Virgo
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Leila (Lauren Lee Smith) is a voracious sexually active young woman. She meets and is drawn to David (Eric Balfour) and the two begin an angry relationship that changes both their lives.
The debate over art versus pornography continues. In LIE WITH ME, the actors have real sex on screen and nothing is left to the imagination. The debate for this being art would have had much more weight, however, had the plot here not been so flimsy that you couldnât hang a used condom on it.
This is really nothing more than a love story – girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl finds boy again. Sadly it tries to be something more than that. The actors â” admirable in their dedication â” arenât helped by the fact that the constant sexual activity detracts from what might have been an interesting story.
Using a drippy arthouse voiceover, we are meant to see Leilaâs quest for fulfilment as something more than an excuse to show hardcore sexual activity in faded seventies light. What this film has to say about love and sex is neither particularly new nor original and Smithâs breathy voice doesnât help. Much of what she says sounds like bad sixth-form poetry. Eric Balfour was great in SIX FEET UNDER and 24 but here has little to do but grimace and look moody. His relationship with his father is more believable than his one with Leila.
There are glimpses of a better film here but it seems the director was so interested in breaking taboos, he forgot to tell a story.
