Chris Egan, Christopher Egan, David Walliams

A lovely maiden with three potential suitors finds the competition to take her hand in marriage heating up to a fever pitch in an adventuresome comedy romance.

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25% liked it

2,956 ratings

R, 1 hr. 36 min.

Directed by: David Lelan, David Leland

Release Date: October 4, 2007

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DVD Release Date: August 26, 2008

Stats: 422 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (422)


  • July 22, 2009
    "Not all virgins are angels and not all angels are virgins..." is the opening line of this film.
    This is a story of young adults in Florence, in the time of the plague. Sexually repressed virgins, who think of hardly anything else.
    Starring Hayden Christensen and The O.C.'s Mi...( read more)scha Barton. She is betrothed to one, and in love with another. He is wanted and trying to escape the sword.
    I am a sucker for romance, so I was semi entertained by Virgin Territory. It stuck me as a B rate cross between something like The Princess Bride and A Knight's Tale. Only not as good and with more nudity.
    It was a decent story, just seemed to fall a little flat in parts.
    If romance gets you, or you believe you can truly fall in love from just one kiss, you will get some amusement out of this film.
  • November 16, 2008
    What a turd. The premise suggested a quirky medieval piece in the same vein as A Knight's Tale. Unfortunately, it turned out to be an annoyingly raunchy and unnessary film. I thought it might be worth it to watch, especially since the storyline prevented Hayden Christensen from t...( read more)alking. I was left asking, why, Tim Roth, why?
  • July 12, 2008
    Tindaro: "[while marrying Gerbino and Pampinea] Pampinea... have you taken a bath?
    Pampinea: I have taken a bath this day, father.
    Tindaro: Witnesses of this holy matrimony, this woman come pure in both body and soul... Now, Gerbino Della Ratta, have you taken a ...( read more)bath?
    Gerbino: Yes.
    Tindaro: When?
    Gerbino: I have taken a bath!
    Tindaro: Are you sure? Downstairs? In between your legs?
    Gerbino: WHAT?!
    Tindaro: Show me you hands...
    Gerbino: This is ridiculous!
    [shows his hands]

    Tindaro: Ugh! You have dirt in your fingernails!
    Gerbino: So, what's wrong?
    Tindaro: Now I can't really say "Witness of this holy matrimony, this man comes with pure body and soul, but with dirty fingernails", now can I?
    Gerbino: [goes to the fountain, washes his hands, goes back to Pampinea and Tindaro, waves hand at Tindaros face] Happy?
    [Tindaro nods]

    Pampinea: [to Gerbino] He was just doing his job.
    Tindaro: Yeah, exactly!"

    Photobucket

    Based on Giovanni Boccaccio's 14th Century literary classic, Virgin Territory is an attempt to create an Elizabethan-style comedy with modern dialogue, rock music, and a contemporary level of nudity. It takes place in Florence with the plague raging through the city, and the central character, played by Mischa Barton, is a beautiful maiden whose father's death has left her in unfortunate financial straits. Before he passed away, she had expected to submit to an arranged marriage to a wealthy Russian count (Matthew Rhys), but dad's untimely demise has left her family's country estate in the hands of an unscrupulous Italian aristocrat (played by the always awesome Tim Roth), and she will have to marry him if she wants to continue living on the grounds where she grew up. To make matters more complicated, she is actually secretly in love with a third suitor, a penniless rogue, played by Hayden Christensen.

    The plot includes the usual Elizabethan devices. There are several people pretending to be who and what they're not, including a puckish painter posing as a priest, a woman anonymously kissing a blindfolded lover who must later identify her by her kiss, plenty of flashing swords, and about five romantic sub-plots. On top of all those conceits, there's also an encampment of horny gypsies who kidnap unsuspecting wayfarers, and a convent full of horny nuns who promise a paradise to any man who is suitably discreet and suitably lascivious. There is plenty of comic relief from both major and minor characters and also lots of nudity: breasts everywhere, and copious buns from people of both sexes.

    It all sounds kind of like fun, doesn't it?

    It is, to some extent. It's not really a good film because it's too unfocused and relies on too many plot gimmicks instead of dealing more honestly with real human passions. Furthermore, there is not a single surprise in any of those contrived plot devices, except for a couple of chance meetings where the surprise is generated by total implausibility. Everything goes down just as expected until the completely predictable happy ending in which all of the couples come together. The film also suffers from some weak performances from actors who were either miscast (Barton, Roth) or just untalented (Christensen) to handle this sort of period piece.

    Yet, in spite of all that, I often found myself swept up by the story because it believes in itself. Writer/director David Leland (the man who wrote Alan Clarke's Made in Britain and Neil Jordan's Mona Lisa) felt he was making a modern-day classic, a dazzling Elizabethan costume comedy with a modern spirit, à la Marie Antoinette with just a touch of Shakespeare in Love and A Knight's Tale. While the film never rises to that level, its enthusiasm is infectious and you can have a good time just letting it wash over you. Despite all the nudity, it has a PG spirit and a nice European B-feel to it. Too bad for Hayden-fucking-Christensen.
  • May 21, 2008
    Almost forgivable, camp non-classic. WTF is David Walliams doin in here? Can't decide if Cassanova was worse but they could have spent more time on humour to make it more worthwhile.
  • November 23, 2009
    Pampinea Anastagi (Mischa Barton) meets with Lorenzo de Lamberti (Hayden Christensen) thinks Pampinea is most beautiful girl when she is there. Lorenzo meet his match when Pampinea kisses Lorenzo blindfolded & he falls in love with her. The only maiden truly sets Lorenzo's heart ...( read more)ablaze is the sexy beauty named Pampinea. Pampinea ends up with Lorenzo after he finds out it was her who gave him a kiss & they live happily ever after in 14th-century Florence, Italy.
  • October 11, 2009
    lolllllllllllllllll
    what a piece of crap
  • September 16, 2009
    I have wandered into Virgin Territory, and I do not like the view. The movie is near-trash. It's like watching a porno in which the acting and special effects are worse than usual. I thought that, this being a lesser-known film, it would have a certain charm to it, but there's...( read more) nothing charming about a stupid premise and a terrible plot. Hayden Christensen is the worse thing about it. Seriously, how does this guy have a job? I'm a better actor than he is. I saw a tree outside earlier that acted better than he does. Needless to say, Virgin Territory is a waste through-and-through. It helps that it's an obscure title and I wouldn't recommend you digging it up. "Heck nah."
  • August 16, 2009
    anyone kiddin me? this movie is just as bad as you expect it. i can say, good music, some laughs, but some, really, are based on it's so stupid it's funny.
  • August 16, 2009
    An attempt at an Elizabethan - era styled comedy romance piece tat just doestn work. Movie has its good parts, but the rest of the movie is not as good as beginning promises. It gets too mixed up.
  • August 10, 2009
    Nice costumes and sets. However, the acting is hammy.

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Comments


  • crustyjugglers
    December 18, 2007
    This sounds like a hollywood trash version of Boccaccio's Decameron: "Boccaccio begins with a description of the Black Death and leads a group of seven women and three men who flee from plague-ridden Florence to a villa in the (then) countryside of Fiesole for two weeks. To pass the time, each member of the party tells one story for each one of the nights spent at the villa. Although fourteen days pass, two days each week are set aside: one day for chores and one holy day during which no work is done. In this manner, 100 stories are told by the end of the ten days." - Wikipedia
  • DarthMaz
    July 22, 2007
    same it looks like an interesting movie :)
  • Caligirljlm15
    July 22, 2007
    I want to see this!!

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