Review

Two handsome middle-aged people get together every Wednsesday and fuck. The woman enters the man's shabby house - she strips off her clothes, he sheds his. For the next hour they give themselves over to their animal pleasures never even knowing each other's names. As viewers we don't know how they met, or even that they don't know each other's names until well into this engrossingly manic, very erotic, darkly moody and vivid film. Gay filmmaker Patrice Chereau (L'homme Blessé) gradually gives us each of star's stories in doses intil he makes them intersect brilliantly. This is Chereau's first English-language feature and it's shot entirely in a London divided sharply into class - one of the issues in the film brought to the table by writer Hanif Kureishi (My Beautiful Laundrette).

Jay (Rylance) is a bar manager at a trendy Soho bar. He's got two roommates in his dysfunctional life. His new gay barman Ian (Calvario) needs a place to stay and Victor (Galbraith) is a mess of a junkie who brings a startling manic energy to every scene in which he appears. Claire (Fox) is a married woman with a small son. She's an actress, currently performing in Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie at a local theater/pub. Her husband Andy (Spall) is a jovial guy who hangs out at the pub while his wife acts.

What really gets this story going is when Jay stalks Claire learning about her life. He tracks her to the theater seeing a performance and meeting her wife and son. He even reveals in bits and pieces the story to Andy. It's an unpredictable tale that show off major writing skills. The film appears to be shot on high-definition digital video that gives it an intimacy - just what the characters seem to be missing. While Intimacy didn't receive US theatrical distribution because of it's explicit sex scenes, this is the very quality that we feel will gain it a huge audience on home video. With its vivid, hard-core sex scenes, terrific story, first-class acting chops - Intimacy is a winner.

 -- Scott Cranin