Sadly Over-hyped

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Among other things, 'Naked Tango' suffers from a poor central story idea. Stephanie (Mathilda May) a young woman in an apparently loveless marriage of convenience to a much older judge (Fernando Rey) finds herself on a honeymoon cruise and meets a young woman named Alba who commits suicide by diving overboard. Seeing a way free from the boring bonds of wedlock, Stephanie assumes Alba's identity and is ultimately duped into involuntary servitude in an Argentinian tango parlor/whorehouse. While in Argentina, Stephanie meets and is captivated by Cholo (Vincent D'Onofrio who is so covered in cheesy eye make-up a la Duran Duran, he looks more clownish than commanding) a master of tango and apparently the master in what becomes a laughably implausible S&M tinged 'relationship' between Stephanie/Alba and Cholo. There's plenty of nudity and violence and sex and precious little of the tango that supposedly inspired this film.The film is visually striking, sophisticated in its use of color and Milena Canonero's costumes and has some marvelously atmospheric and moody sets. But like D'Onofrio's later films 'The Cell' and 'Chelsea Walls', the 'pretty picture' factor and the artsy lensing are not enough to sustain a whole 92 minutes (which is what the longest version of this film available for home viewing, on a Japanese laser disc and not on either the Canadian or European VHS tapes) of total viewer involvement. This film runs like a super-long music video, only without enough music or dancing to make it an *engaging* super-long music video.If all you care about is seeing May's character naked or D'Onofrio's character having rough sex with May, you won't be disappointed. But fans of D'Onofrio's *acting* ability or the *tango* are going to feel shortchanged because there is so little of both for them to experience (although what little is there is interesting). It's too bad 'Naked Tango' is such a tease, because it could have been as fascinating and mysteriously erotic as Rudolph Valentino in the tiny clip of 'The Four Horseman Of The Apocalypse' that appears early in 'Naked Tango'...the sex and violence and nudity are boring sidetracks from the dancing and the unexplored sides of Cholo's shady but intriguing Buenos Aires of the 1920s, where the really magnetically interesting story lies as submerged and abandoned as the real Alba's body.This film is only recommended for its eye candy, not it's ability to substantially feed your yearnings for a good and imaginative story.

I can see why many people dislike this film. Some of the scenes in it are more suggestions of reality than reality itself. I personally liked it. The settings were superb. The dancing wonderful. Cholo, melting the girl's heart just by fancy footwork is amazing.Argentinian Tango musicians will tell you that they have witnessed many couples copulating while they dance the tango, hence the blindfolded trio makes this suggestion. (Since writing that I have been informed that tango musicians WERE sometimes blindfolded in real life.)The costumes and especially the lighting are terrific.The relationship between the two central characters is complex: less talk more S & M.

To me, Naked Tango is the dance portrayed as a film. The intensity, brutality, cold and yet seductive passion between the `dancers' and the camera left me drawn to the pain and pleasure. I saw the blood as the rose, the actors as the dancers and the viewers as spectators (where we are part of the film). Defiantly a film that gets tattooed on the brain!

In spite of a strong cast, including the very talented Fernando Rey, and sumptuous settings, this movie is simply a pretentious failure. The story revolves around the sado-masochistic relation between a hoodlum and a hapless woman, the latter abducted into forced prostitution in Argentina. There is surprisingly little eroticism in this movie, even with the presence of the ever lovely, and ever nude, Ms. May. The ill-fated couple tango their way to romance, but the utter lack of chemistry between D'Onofrio and May, compunded by a poorly scripted story line, strains the viewer's credulity. I admire Mr. Schraders' work in other films, but this one was definitely off-the-mark. The video is hard to find but it is most assuredly not a lost masterpiece.