Weak

adam-may-bower

'Melissa P.' is far too weak and clichéd to be a good film. Upon enjoying 'Lo Sono L'amore' and 'A Bigger Splash' and anticipating 'Call Me By Your Name' I figured I should watch all the other films by Italian director Luca Guadagnino. Due to other poor reviews, and the fact that this is one of Guadagnino's early films, I didn't have many high expectations. However, even my mediocre expectations were disappointed by this film. The story was poorly handled and saturated with predictable clichés that caused the film to be un engaging. Surely though, since this is labelled as an "erotic drama" the love scenes will be appealing? Not at all. They were filmed in a very amateur manner and they were cut short, so nothing really happened. For a movie entered around an individual's sex life, all the sexual tension leads up to a few moments of kissing and then before things get excessive, it's cut short. However, there were a few moments of this film that were rather good, such as the character of Melissa's grandmother, played by the wonderful Geraldine Chaplin. The leading role of Melissa was also played quite well by María Valverde and she pulled off the sexually-charged character quite well. There were also a few moments where Guadagnino's potential was shown through some beautifully filmed scenes that is essentially a good indication of the good to come in his future films. While this film had it's moments, overall it was a disappointing bore. I won't hold this film against Guadagnino as I know it is one of his earlier films, and having seen his more recent, brilliant films, I still commend him as a great director. This movie is a good indication of how far Guadagnino has come in his filmography.

score 4/10

adam-may-bower 2 June 2018

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw4187087/