Demonlover (2003)

So much average

Please don't spend money on this.

Good movie but grossly overrated

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Compare this with 'Summer Hours' or 'Les Destinees' and you'll see that Olivier Assayas has as wide a range of styles as any current filmmaker I can think of. That said, this surreal, intentionally obtuse story of corporate intrigue centering around world domination of anime porn, makes less and less sense, climaxing with an 'ironic twist' you can see coming from several miles off, and leaving one with the feeling that the film is slightly less intelligent than one might have hoped. On the other hand, It did improve on a second viewing. While the ending still bugged me, the odd, slightly irrational middle felt more in control and intentional, more a comment on it's main character than I caught the first time around.One of those films that can be enjoyed as a high-end, visceral, well made ride, as long as you don't demand perfection or high art.

I liked the first fifteen minutes, but then it got slow and I started checking the internet for deals on television sets, and then the movie started showing some interesting Japanese animation, so I started watching again. Then there was this horrible annoying music and I faded out and started checking out you-tube videos. Then Gina Gershown showed up and the film started to get interesting, but then I faded out and the next thing I know Gina is being sliced and diced, but then Gina fights back, but then I fade out again. The next thing I know there are a lot of scenes of women yelling at each other and threatening each other. Now,I'm awake again and I'm watching as this nearly bald-headed actor who I think is the boss of something is kissing this woman who I think is a lawyer and they're tearing each other's clothes off. Now... oh my, they're completely naked, but then, what? What just happened? Did she shoot the guy or did someone else? Now the woman is handcuffed, no that's just a bracelet.Someone is giving her pills and they're in a helicopter... Okay, lots of beautiful women, lots of quick hints of violence and pornographic sex, a few violent action sequences and many serious sounding talking scenes. Why is this such a bore? The major problem with the film is that I don't really care what happens with the lead (Connie Nielsen) character. Apparently the director did not discuss the character with her -- she admits this in an interview on the DVD -- and so she is basically a blank. The Japanese anime characters generate more sympathy. Chloe Sevigny delivers a more emotional and sympathetic performance, but she only pops up for short moments here and there. She also admits in an interview that her scenes were filmed so far apart that she had a hard time making the film. She also said that the director told her nothing about the part. She claims that he never gave her any direction, and that made her "self-conscious".If you're willing to commit the time to this movie and watch it two or three times, you may get something out of it and see a point. I just found the direction so bad that it wasn't worth it.

The film looks slick, the actors are good, period. End of merits. Director Assayas needs to sit down and do some homework before he writes a script. You may not be familiar with things like corporate espionage and the porn industry -though if you're going to make a film about them, you certainly should- but being blatantly ignorant about "the Internets" is just unacceptable. This movie feels as dated in most of its plot contrivances as if it was made in the eighties, but it's only five years old as I'm writing this. I mean, things like: how can a website be "highly profitable" and "impossible to find" at the same time? And if so, how come a teenage kid just goes and finds it? Oh, them kiddos with them Googles and stuff...On top of this kind of ignorant devices it's pretentious, slow-paced, full of plot holes, and just doesn't go anywhere. It's hard to point my toes downward, but if I could, I would give this film a four-thumbs-down.

Demonlover is an intricate, absorbing and claustrophobically dramatic movie about corporate espionage, loyalty and betrayal. It tackles some interesting and relevant subject matter, and establishes characters and situations too complex to make clear sense out of. I've read some of the better interpretations by other users (for instance the thoughtful comment by the user panspermia, which however I don't agree with), and the events in this movie can certainly be perceived in a number of different ways. It's very true that there is a dominance/submission theme running through it, but the whys and wherefores of the events and reactions unfortunately tend to be too vague. I have my own interpretation of what went on (which is too lengthy to go into in detail), but my impression suffers a great deal from unclear descriptions of the companies and who are with which company. I think my interpretation works pretty well, though, even if there may be a couple of less than literal layers of the story that I'm probably missing (such as exactly what the DNA string at the end means, if anything). I'm looking forward to sometime seeing the movie a second time, and noticing more details. Disturbing as the movie is, however, I think it will be a while before I'll want to watch it again.But all in all it's an interesting and thought-provoking little movie, with great production values and good actors.7 out of 10.