In 1990s Spain had the most vibrant of all cinema industries in Europe. This could have been observed in quality of Spanish genre films, usually much better and refreshing than their Hollywood counterparts. The trend included even the genre of erotic thriller, and an example can be found in Between Your Legs, 1999 film directed by Manuel Gomez Pereira.
Protagonist is Miranda (played by Victoria Abril), woman who works as phone operator at Madrid radio station and, because her work demands to stay at night, seldom sees her husband Felix (played by Carmelo Gomez), police inspector, and their daughter. Her greatest problem is, however, sex addiction that forces her to randomly pick men from the street and have casual encounters with them. Concerned that this might ruin her life, she seeks therapy and joins sex addicts’ support group which is also frequented by Javier (played by Javier Bardem), screenwriter who developed phone sex addiction. Miranda and Javier find themselves to be kindred spirits and they start torrid affair. Javier, however, has serious problems because Azucena, mysterious woman with whom he had contact, secretly taped conversations detailing his most intimate sex fantasies and those tapes are now something of an underground sensation in Madrid. This coincides with Javier’s wife having affair with his business partner. Soon afterwards Felix begins investigating murder and trail begins to point towards Javier as possible suspect and reveals that he has relationship with inspector’s wife.
Manuel Gomez Pereira has built his career mainly on populist comedies, so erotic thriller seemed somewhat awkward choice for his project. He, however, handled this challenge very well. Script, co-written by him and Joaquin Oristrel and Yolanda Garcia Serrano, uses very complicated story with many side subplots, but Pereira directs it very well, making events occurring on screen easily understandable for the audience. Viewer’s attention is brought by imaginative pseudo-Hitchcockian opening title scene and maintained until rather unexpected ending. Pereira’s film benefits from very good musical score by Bernardo Bonezzi, but even more by excellent cast. Victoria Abril, one of Pedro Almodovar’s muses, is very good in the role of somewhat older woman who is nevertheless forced to deal with her sexual needs. Javier Bardem, one of the greatest macho icon of Spanish, European and world cinema, is even better in complex role of Miranda’s partner. Carlos Gomez is also good in the role of policeman torn between personal jealousy and professional duty. Although it could have been much better with some work in the editing room and certain subplots being left out, Between Your Legs works as refreshing combination of unusual characters, refined style and clear homages to the masters of thriller genre. As such, it is quite entertaining film that should be recommended even to viewers who are sceptical to non-Hollywood genre productions.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
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