The Comfort of Strangers 1991

     This film is based on a 1981 novel by Ian McEwan.  An English couple holiday in Venice to sort out their relationship.  There is some friction and distance between them and they can sense they are being watched?  One evening, they get lost looking for a restaurant and a stranger invites them to accompany him.  He plies them with wine and grotesque stories from his childhood.  They leave disoriented, physically ill and morally repelled.  But the next day when the stranger sees them in the piazza, they accept an invitation to his sumptuous flat??  After this visit, the pair find the ability to face questions about each other.  But, they are drawn back into the mysterious and menacing fantasies of the stranger and his partner.

     This movie is well made with twists and turns around the dark alleys of the your mind.  It is like the location of Venice in which it is set.  It leaves you clueless about what it is really about but it prods a few raw nerves and gives you corresponding jolts.  It is interesting to see the actors in their younger years.  The younger couple are idealists trying to recover lost romance. The older couple has left all their ideals behind.  3* (This movie is OK)

107 min, Drama directed by Paul Schrader and written by Harold Pinter with Christopher Walken, Rupert Everett, Natasha Richardson, Helen Mirren, Manfredi Aliquo, David Ford, Daniel Franco, Rossana Canghiari, Mario Cotone, Giancarlo Previati, Antonio Serrano.

Note:  Imdb 6.3* out of 10* with 4778 reviews, Slant Magazine 4* out of 5* Chuck Bowen, Metacritic 61 out of 100 with 20 critics, Roger Ebert 2 1/2* out of 4*, Rotten Tomatoes 47% with 19 reviews 61% with 1000+ audience scores, Amazon 4.1* out of 5* with 104 reviews, Letterboxd 3.2* out of 5*, Goodreads gives the book 3.40 with 15,222 ratings.

Special Note:  Christopher Walken said in an interview that he kept the clothes he wore in this movie designed by Georgio Armani.  Though the film is set in Venice, Italy, the locale in the novel is not specified.  Both Natasha Richardson and Helen Mirren had long term relationships with Liam Neeson