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Thanks for the memories!

People are voting emotionally.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Blistering performances.

A piece of art, no doubt about it. The cruel world of a twisted relationship, Love in its best form, delight, ecstatic, psychotic, and death. A final round of abundance, gone beyond belief. Superb performances by Jeremy Irons as usual and Julia Binouch. See it, fee it, recognize it. It's in us all...xx

Extramarital affairs and politics often seem to go hand in hand. At least as far as movies and novels go. Sometimes, like in the Clinton scandal, you wonder: Why would a politician risk his lofty and respected (forgive the term) position in favor of a passionate, wild fling? It's probably the lure of immense power, wealth, and prestige. And after all, politicians ARE only human. Why do I bring this up, you might ask? Because DAMAGE is about an affair between a highly-revered parliament member and the always-alluring Juliette Binoche. Honestly, I fell in love with her back in the atrocious (and overrated) "The English Patient". Another bad film about an affair, by the way. Since then, I've been following her career. For her best roles, hunt down CHOCOLAT and the TROIS COLOURS (THREE COLORS) film series. This movie, in contrast, is probably not one she'd want to have listed. The main problem is the awkward chemistry between her and Jeremy Irons. For one thing, Mr. Irons plays his part very woodenly. And it doesn't help that he dresses... blah! And he's about as attractive as a toad. Are we seriously supposed to believe that Ms. Binoche would favor a fling with him over his dashing (and rich) son? Whom she's already agreed to marry, no less? Admittedly, the love scenes are ravishing. But it feels so odd, because it's obvious the actors don't have any real chemistry. And the ending is just as much a letdown as anything else. As a side note, I know I slammed Mr. Irons pretty hard in this review. I do like him as an actor, though. But he's way better as a villain (Scar in THE LION KING and Simon in "Die-hard With A Vengeance") than as a romantic lead.

In Damage, Louis Malle takes the standard tale of infidelity and plays it in a more unique way than we've seen before. That is to say, he keeps all of the emotions bottled up and close to the chest. Adapted by David Hare, from a novel by Josephine Hart, it tells the story of a Parliament member (Jeremy Irons) who falls deeply in love with his son's fiancée (Juliette Binoche) and carries on an affair with her. The set up is standard, but the approach is what sets this apart. A few years earlier, Adrian Lyne brought us the intense and high-drama extreme of infidelity Fatal Attraction, and here Malle brings us the opposition. It's all stolen glances, closeted emotions and passion that comes out only in the bedroom.For the longest time it seemed like it wasn't doing much new, but the rigidness of it all is such a great contrast to the passion in the sexual scenes. Those scenes felt dangerous, erotic and exciting, while the rest of it was appropriately closeted as a result. Irons slipped into the skin of his character so well, making you see him as this guy who had been so passionless his whole life but finally found something worth feeling for. It's a hauntingly apt portrayal of sexual obsession. The first meeting between Irons and Binoche is brilliantly executed; in the first touch between them you can see in him that this is something that has changed his life completely. It's all very close to the chest and the way Malle constructs it is so brilliantly understated, which I felt added even more emotional pull to it.A lot of people could complain about the characters being thin, but I felt that they couldn't have been any more detailed; it's all there if you're looking closely. In their conversations, their looks, they reveal all of the things that don't come out on the surface. This is the kind of film that doesn't waste a word. Juliette Binoche was incredible, playing something quite unique than what I've come to expect from her, almost an antagonist in a lot of ways. Binoche has made a career out of portraying more on the inside than she displays on the outside, and this is taking that skill of her's to an extreme. Her character is haunted by her past, motivated by so much but revealing so little. It's that mystery that makes her so compelling, so frightening yet simultaneously alluring.The final act raises things to an even more impressive, disturbing level. Miranda Richardson has a big scene near the end that is sure to resonate with any viewer. It's hard to think of many scenes that were as hard to watch as that one. There's so much hate, anguish and devastation in her. She took that character to such an emotional extreme, yet somehow was able to keep it from feeling even slightly melodramatic. It all boils down to a conclusion that is devastating, powerful and absolutely haunting, aided by an operatic score.

Take overwrought Oedipal stuff about a British minister sleeping with his son's fiancé, and subdue to a cold eroticism that holds no satisfaction in the sweat-soaked bedspreads. Break this up in so many anxieties for each character, past and present, and center around a quest for images that were dear but never quite mourned. The son wishing his disaffected father was passionate, but which we know he is exactly where he shouldn't be; her in turn, accepting to expiate the image that wracked her life with guilt by marrying it. His wife, doubly aghast, who has to mourn about the wrong loved one. So it makes some sense that Louis Malle was drawn to this project. The subtle portraits mirrored against each other in a way that they reveal a larger broken humanity, like in Atlantic City so long ago.But it does remain a film that rests with these images we are seeing, polished again to a certain cold beauty but without a certain nuance to entertain. We are meant to be heavily involved on an emotional basis for this to work, and though decent, haven't we got so many films like this?