Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Julian Sands, Kelly Macdonald

At turns both mesmerizing and frustrating, Mike Figgis's 1999 experimental feature interweaves an audacious dramatization of the Adam and Eve myth with autobiographical vignettes from the director'...( read more  read more... )s life. In Figgis's golden rendering of the Genesis tale, the first humans are a black man (Femi Ogumbanjo) and a white woman (Hanne Klintoe), who emerge one day, fully formed, from a lake, and regard each other with playful wonder. They discover, like children, their anatomical differences, and explore the surrounding green paradise until coming upon the tree of knowledge. From this they eat and almost instantly reevaluate one another with a steely lust. Thus their, and our, fabled fall from grace ends in the mire of sexual possession and walled-off feeling, a tragedy that Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) uses as a touchstone for the contemporary story of a filmmaker named Nic (Julian Sands). Nic's own youthful experiences with various kinds of formative humiliation, including finding his teenage girlfriend in bed with his best friend, are presented as flashbacks meant to resonate with his marital unhappiness today. Less clear are other moments out of time that don't particularly connect with Figgis's major theme, especially an odd development in which twin sisters (both played by Saffron Burrows), each unaware of the other's existence, have a fleeting, worlds-are-colliding encounter at an airport. Figgis also reaches into a grab bag of Nic's other old sorrows, things that don't uniquely inform or enhance the film's point, and muddies things up a bit. But the sheer hubris of marrying a myth with a memoir carries the day here, and Figgis leaps the hurdle of potential self-parody with a certain courage. --Tom Keogh

Flixster Users

62% liked it

1,182 ratings

Critics

43% liked it

28 critics

R, 106 min.

Directed by: Mike Figgis

Release Date: May 28, 1999

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DVD Release Date: December 7, 1999

Stats: 60 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (60)


  • September 18, 2008
    Delicate approach on various,contemporary sexual topics,from the Adam-Eve standard to puzzling tales of liturgical beauty.Figgis' most allegorical film.
  • June 27, 2008
    Horrible.
  • September 14, 2009
    A total f"#ked up mess!! Boring, tedious and terribly directed. Slow pace adds nothing.

    25/100
  • August 21, 2009
    This plot-free film plays like a stream of dreams. The downside is that it also feels like a film-school experiment driven by Calvin Klein ad aesthetics. The core story is about a filmmaker who has lost much more than the film's provocative title suggests. Scenes in which a curio...( read more)us child evolves to a jaded adult are also intercut with a modern version of Adam and Eve in which a black man and white woman emerge from a small lake. There's enough philosophical and cinematic doodling here for several films.
  • February 1, 2009
    its obvious that i have issues with the director.
    i hated this film
    even if they had some good shots
  • January 20, 2009
    More of an artistic expression than a movie due to it's non-linear storyline and lack of a real plot. And, while this may not be for everyone, I found it to be a fine example of filmmaking. Rife with symbolism and a beautiful classical score, I would recommend this to film puri...( read more)sts.
  • October 29, 2008
    I fell like I've seen this movie based on the poster and plot typed on this page. I'll have to add it to my queue to see.
  • September 1, 2008
    Somewhat pretentious, but I liked it anyway. Lots of nudity, though.
  • August 9, 2007
    There are some people who can't even get these kind of shots on 35mm.
  • June 5, 2007
    i beg of all of you..please find this movie..watch it alone..with your lover(s) and /or with friends..amazing!

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