I have a penchant for verbosity. My typical reviews have a habit of running into the thousands of words, which is fine sometimes, but often, I feel perhaps I am not worth listening to for that long. Thus, here I will try something new. I will be brief...
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For most of the 112 minutes of Original Sin, I was thinking to myself, this must be the worst, most-formulaic, most poorly conceived movie I have ever seen. This was even after one of the most beautiful sex scenes ever put to film. However, by the end, once the characters were fleshed out, I was inexplicably passably sated.

Wealthy, Victorian, self-made, Cuban coffee exporter, Antonio Banderas, is disillusioned with love, and therefore proposes marriage to a plain devoted girl from Maryland whom he has only met in letters. On the boat, arrives stunning Angelina Jolie who has covertly taken the plain girl’s place. Jolie has plans to marry Banderas, gain his confidence, and then steal his fortune. This is the setup for the brazenly formulaic plot that ensues.

A movie go-er experiences three stages while watching this film. In the first, you are stunned by the beauty, a beauty that hits immediately and persists throughout. The stunningly beautiful setting of Victorian Cuba (actually filmed in Mexico), with stunning seascapes, colonial villas, neo-gothic churches, and charming towns, all filmed in a pastel wash of colors. The beauty is magnificently magnified by the delightfully scrumptious couple of Banderas and Jolie. The pair doesn’t disappoint; they quickly get it on in the opening scenes. Original Sin must have the most beautiful sex scene I have ever seen on film. Not at all raunchy or even vaguely realistic, it is beautiful, sculptural sex. Loving overhead views of writhing naked bodies, buttocks and breasts, laid out on a large billowy bed in a sun-washed Caribbean villa. It was most akin to a Rodin sculpture or some sensual modern dance. Simply breathtaking.

Unfortunately, the memory of that scene was quickly quashed by the rapidly intensifying incredibility of the plot. Jolie disappears after emptying Banderas’ bank accounts, who quickly engages in hot pursuit. This is the second stage, and despite the continuing beauty, the insipid dialogue and unflinching formulism made only one thought persist: “This is the worst movie I have ever seen.”

Somehow however, some magical way, this feeling of supreme mediocrity somehow came to an end. Near the end of the film, the characters finally all of a sudden developed. It was like a camera suddenly clicking into focus, but perhaps it was the latent abilities of these two actors (joined by the formula required third player, played by Thomas Jane) or possibly the power of the character development from the Cornell Wolrich novel on which this film is based. Suddenly seeing the characters fleshed out, and not merely in the flesh was surprisingly refreshing. This sudden crystallization coupled with an interesting, slightly surrealistic [1] ending, made auteur Michael Cristofer’s Original Sin worth watching.

Overall: C-
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NOTES

[1] A term I use to refer to the surreality of Borges and Auster. Our world, but with a tinge of twilight.


Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age