The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

This movie is not good at all. Apart from the explicit sex scenes, which seemed to be the first ones to be screened in the UK, I do not see what's new about this movie.A man and a woman sharing their bodies for pleasure only. Sex-based communication and that's it. So, what else?Kerry's acting is fine enough though. A couple of scenes in foggy weather are interesting to watch. However, the man getting obsessed about her without being able to ask her a thing instead... it's just pathetic.If a movie needed to show explicit sex scenes without being in the category of "pornographic film" in the UK, then I don't get it why to write such a very simple plot with anything extraordinary in this. I think it's just a waste of time watching this film!

Intimacy is a European co-production directed by French director Patrice Chereau in his first English speaking feature, also set in the UK. The script is based on two pieces by writer Hanif Kureishi: the book "Intimacy", and the short story "Nightime".Intimacy tells the story of Andy, a divorcée bartender who meets Claire at his apartment on Wednesday to have sex, no words involved... until they start to click emotionally and Andy starts following her to know more about her.Intimacy is a soaring and raw movie about mid life disenchantment, and the need of physical contact to built emotional one.The film has been controversial due to the presence of explicit sexual scenes. However, reducing such a good film and story, to just the sex scenes is intentionally misleading, moralistic, and completely unfair to a story that presents many of the problems of middle-agers in a honest and raw way: abandonment, divorce, loneliness, the feeling of being lost and emotional empty, the sense of not going anywhere in life, the trouble to fulfill your responsibilities as an adult despite being all messed up in your head and soul, fracas and rejection, unhappiness and hope. All of this is beautifully blended and portrayed in the film.The sex scenes are very strong, very demanding both physically and emotionally, simulated most of them, but very convincing as they really and feel very real. The viewer gets the impression that is watching a real couple having sex. The sex is always raw, and goes from almost brutal to sweet, from hungry to delightful, from anxious to comforting, with all the body language and emotions associated to different emotional states. Being so, the viewer does not feel aroused by the images, but sad and anxious about the couple being so needy of contact, and so unable to contact. The sex, in that sense, is a proof of the soul and feelings of the characters, not a dirty thing. In that regards, the film creates a clear line between what sex is not, and sets a clear boundary with porn, despite the fellatio in the film being non simulated, which is portrayed as a sweet moment of sharing and not a as woman mechanically sucking a man off for his own pleasure and as a sexual slave.The mood of the movie is great, with a mix of night and interior greenish/yellowish depressing scenes and warm and luminous ones. The art direction is great, as well as the music.The performances by all actors are terrific, convincing, powerful, and masterful, especially the leading couple Mark Rylance as Jay and Kerry Fox as Claire, in two roles that are extremely demanding both at a physical and emotional level. The supporting actors are also good and convincing: Alastair Galbraith as Claire's husband Victor, Philippe Calvario as the gay bartender Ian, Timothy Spall as Jay's drug addict brother Andy, and Marianne Faithful as Claire's friend Betty, among others. Although Galbraith is always terrific, I don't think he was the right person, physically, for his character, as it is difficult to believe that Claire would be with this sort of guy, to be honest.A very sad movie, not easy to watch, with confronting images and themes, moving at times, with a very powerful story, wonderfully performed and directed. Abstain from viewing if you are a puritan, as you will only see the sex.

One of the most unpleasant films I've ever seen.The dialogue is howlingly bad. All the characters are reprehensible. The script doesn't make any sense whatsoever.The only thing everyone talks about this film are the sex scenes because the rest is not worth mentioning. The story made so little sense. The relationships between the characters were unbelievable (the gay bartender, the drunk roommate, the main character befriending the overweight husband, etc). Everyone, and I mean everyone, was dour and angry.The bits of dialogue made me laugh out loud. Nothing rang true. Notice the hilarious dialogue during the scene between the two women in the park. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Here's an example:"When I died, there was no one there. I had to go through the whole thing on my own.""What was it, the day you died?"Who talks like that?To make things even worse, the acting is strictly amateurish.The film has a very French feel to it because the director is French but the whole thing didn't jibe at all. It was like watching British characters behave in a French manner, with everything set not in France but set in England.It's almost like the director wanted to make all English folks look bad. Really bad.Avoid at all cost.

A worthy movie for adults. The plot is a bit like "Last Tango in Paris," with a man and woman accidentally meeting, then showing up one afternoon a week for some rabid sex, neither telling the other anything about themselves. The guy (Mark Rylance) decides to follow the woman (Kerry Fox), discovers she's married and works in a shabby theater, and is married to a not-overly-bright man who has too many chins and a puffy lower lip like Alfred Hitchcock's. Both of the men want her and she decides to stay with her husband and children. End of plot.This is about as deglamorized a movie as has recently appeared. At first, both Rylance and Fox look like the kind of people who are right up there in the first rank of the third rate. He runs a bar. He's balding, skinny, always needs a shave, and lives alone in some seedy dump that looks like a Soviet-era zheloy dom. She first appears with her hair up, working-class style, glumly groomed. And the two of them are photographed -- dressed or otherwise -- in a way that makes their skin seem to emit a pale sickly blue. Your first thought is liable to be a red flag: This is going to be one depressing flick.Then as the plot develops -- hard as it is to follow in its details -- we come to know them surprisingly well, the two of them. Rylance takes on a certain pathetic charm with his scarred eyebrow and occasional stutter. And Kerry Fox lets her hair down, literally, and we can see the self-knowledge and the desire in her big blue New Zealand eyes. They become likable.In many ways the most admirable person important to the story is Timothy Spall as Kerry's husband, the Hitchcockian cab driver. He's not particularly bright and he trusts people a bit too much. And, man, he looks unprepossessing. But he's gregarious, generous, good-natured, and as harmless as a child. When he discovers that Rylance and Fox have been boffing each other, what does he do? Does he pick up a gun and spray lead. Does he do a plastic-surgery number on Rylance's face? Nope. He goes round to Rylance's bar, has a beer, and tells Rylance that he loves his wife. And that every day he loves her more. Later, when Fox prompts him to ventilate his anger over her affair, all he can come up with is something like, "I don't care about that s***! What really bothers me is that you're a lousy actress and will never be anything else!" When he's done shouting, she replies, "You don't even know how to hurt me." There are other characters in the story too -- children, an ex-wife, somebody named Victor with a Scots accent, and a gay French bartender who philosophizes a lot. (I wonder if the writers had a particular model in mind.) Next to Kerry's husband, the French guy is about the most articulate of the bunch.But that's the problem with the movie. I was frankly lost at times. I honestly don't know how Spall's character found out about his wife's affair. Evidently she confirmed suspicions he already had, but since the scene doesn't appear on screen we have to guess. In fact, if the love scenes are speechless, the rest of the script isn't much better. More than once a character says to another, "I can't understand a word you're saying." Sometimes I couldn't either. "We shouldn't be gay because someone died." "Nobody died." "I died once. It was the only day I could tell the whole truth." I think we're in "Last Year at Marienbad" territory here. A shouting match between Rylance and Kerry in the basement theater made no sense to me at all. It reminded me of my marriage.I recommend it though. It's a rare movie made for adults. It's a challenging drama about lives that are either half empty or half full, depending on how you look at them. The ending is sad, but we are at least left with the hope that these characters can mend their tattered lives and get on with things.