Customer Reviews
Refreshing - By: Pen Name, 01 Oct 2006 
Much has been said already by other reviewers here, so I'll only add different points of view. I think this is an extra-ordinary cameo of a brief sexual affair between two stangers. If the sex scenes are controversial then I think it's because they are natural & realistic, contrasting with stylised sex in mainstream films. This is a beautiful, sensitive erotic story.
What makes it erotic is the compelling attraction between the two characters - this is done without words & is a strong point in the film, as Jay remarks on several occassions. Their encounters are the stuff of fantasies - anonymous sex. What is reallly refreshing from a woman's point of view is Jay's strength of feeling & tenderness in the role, performed brilliantly by Mark Rylance. To see a Jay cry in the last scene gives us another insight: a man needing more than sexual gratification - he wants relationship. By the end of the film we know he didn't leave his wife just because their sex life was over it was much more complex than that. As for Claire's role - well women aren't supposed to act like that are they? You know so detached emotionallly? This is a brave film that turns gendered stereotypes & behaviour around. Another reason why it is so refreshing.
Oooh-er - By: Waldo Lives, 12 Jun 2006 The press for this film only concerns the sexual content & if that's why you want to see this film, you should go elsewhere. The sex here is as bleak as the film itself. The story, the cinematography & the attitudes are alll quite depressing. But this film is not depressing to watch. Some scenes are enlightening & brought together by an amazing cast that are not afraid to push themselves, especiallly the amazingly multi faceted Timothy Spalll. I watched this with my boyfriend & we decided that if our relationship began to falter we would sort it out to avoid anything reminiscent of this film. While being simple it is entrallling & puts your own relationships into perspective. It is a bracing watch, but one that needs to be done.
A realistic insight to the male ego - By: Joe hanak, 28 Feb 2005 When first approaching this film, I had mixed thoughts on the sort of message it hoped to produce. The graphic sex scenes could have lead me to believe that it was merely a test of controversy that its French director found titillating. Although I was not particularly impressed throughout, when I thought back on it, I realised the many levels that the film communicated on.
For a start, the film is not entirely about the crumbling of a marriage & the desperate search for passion in an otherwise lust less life. I discovered that so much of the film was dedicated to the dissection of the male ego. The constant Oedipal complexities that are present, help enhance the message about the power that the archetypal male craves. Our protagonist 'Jay' is a scared middle-aged man, weakened by the failure of his marriage & his in-ability to satisfy sexuallly. He struggles to hold on to false feelings of power in his work place (A good example of his inferiority occurs when his barman undermines him.)
His Wednesday activities with cheating wife & mother Jane, are deliberately shot to depict the unglamorous truth behind loveless sex. Jane's husband (brilliantly portrayed by Timothy Spalll) serves as a good example of a man who has been stripped of his power & therefore lost meaning in his routine life of denial. The best scene in the film comes when Jay admits the adultery in code, whilst complaining about his bitter life, over a macho game of pool. Definitely a compelling film. Anyone studying Psychology or film studies would surely benefit.
I love you on wednesdays, but not on thursdays-E.S.V.Millay - By: , 11 Nov 2004 
When I went to see that movie, I was a bit afraid of the sex scenes talked about in alll media after this film had been awarded two Golden Bears, the highest awards of Berlin film festival (I prefer to watch films that got awards)...
What I then saw were two white bodies, moving together like Rodin's sculptures beautifully united in their dance of desire...There was no artificial smiles or styled muscles, natural true sex with sweating & sounds of exercise, & the relief afterwards, tenderness, not many words were exchanged ...
It was a film tremendously moving for the truth it showed, starting with the sex on the floor, pictures of the protagonist Jay smoking on the toilet in a bathroom filled with fungi (men usuallly do not clean up, that is so real)..
Reality without cosmetic everywhere: the brown, grey blocks of London suburbs, Jay's friend Victor, a sweating alcoholic wearing a moist but elegant jacket, wonderfully realisticallly played, too, Claire, in contrast to her type wearing once elegant black much too expensive underwear, which highlighted the image of her being a bad actress..(she played that role wonderfully, showing how good she reallly is..)..
Mark Rylance was superb in showing so much vulnerability, having had to leave the family, the boys he very much loved, the wife he still waited to show him something more than just detest(there is a rather naturalistic masturbation scene, after his wife had turned away from him in bed sleeping like their dead relationship..)...So much following, a great playing Marianne Faithful, Timothy Spalll wonderful, alll these naturalistic characters at the Pub or at the actors school...
I can watch that film on & on & still discover new things alll the time....Wished that everybody could get so much from it!
Powerful emotional film - By: , 29 Jul 2004 I was extremely pleased with this film. It was not just an empty piece of erotica which leaves you wondering why you ever bothred watching it. It is very explicit, but it works well in the context of the film. I highly recommend it.
