a review

Needless to say, "Naked" was probably the most disturbing film we watched at movie night. The film is beautifully shot and the music was haunting, but there is a lot about the film that makes me think over and over. There are all these "whys" and "what the" in my head. I found myself agreeing a lot with the following review I read from netflix:

"This film is beautifully shot, beautifully scored, and pretty well acted. That being said, I'm a little disapointed that more people aren't more critical of it. The main character is a completely self concerned, self righteous "lost boy" who wanders around London berating nearly everyone he comes into contact with and abusing any woman who allows him into their bed (as well as those that refuse to). He is highly inteligent with a keen ability to smell weakness and shut down anyone with his impossibly witty, stabbing banter. More than a couple of his monologues/rantings, however, devovle into cinematic masturbation (or filmmaker self indulgence). All the female characters in the film are completely weak-willed, ineffectual creatures who allow themselves to be abused both mentally and physically and then ask for more. At the end of the movie I was left asking myself what the point was supposed to be. Unfortunately there is no point. There is just a lot of beautifully shot ugliness which many critics labeled "social realism" and gave it high marks. I expect more. I expect that if you're going to open a movie with the main character raping a young woman that some profound social commentary or point should be made about this guy and his behavior. I listened to the directors commentary after watching the movie to see if he was trying to do something which I missed, but no, he wanted to do exactly what it seemed he was doing: introduce a totally depraved character committing one of the worst acts and then gradually show that he's actually a very complicated character. What? Complexity of character in no way justifies or explains the kind of behavior we see in the film. This is a movie which grapples with some serious subject matter but fails to follow through and attach a meaning to all of it, to give it a purpose. I would go so far as to say this is irresponsible film making. For instance (and most notably), what is this movie saying about violence towards women?"