Psychologically stimulating throughout, Verhoeven portrays a different response to the invasive penetration of rape. One I haven't seen before, and considering the event in question immediately takes place as the film commences, the originality of this perspective bursts through the screen. A businesswoman, leading a video game company, is raped in her own home but decides not to report it due to past incidents with the police. Two vital elements of this production elevate it above the endless stream of psychological thrillers. Verhoeven's astute direction and Huppert's electrifying central performance. She, somehow, maintains a role that demands physical prowess and emotional damage. Her character's work life is so important and hectic, that she has no choice but to continue on despite the horrific crime that took place. Huppert magnificently conveyed rigidity, she was a strong character that you subconsciously admire her, even if her moral compass is slightly skewed. The psychological aspects remained refreshing as Verhoeven slowly peels away the complex layers that shroud this thriller. Plenty of backstory, substantial character development and an array of suspicious individuals, each carrying immorality. Some of the scenes, particularly the sexual encounters, felt reminiscent to 90s erotic thrillers due to the musical score. Old fashioned, yet nostalgically innovative. The problem, and it comes down to personal taste, was with a specific plot point that left the entire third act rather unfocused. Once the culprit is identified, Huppert's character seemingly continues sexual activities and it came across as hyperbolically forced, just to further illustrate her dementedness. It didn't work for me and released the grip that this thriller had on me. Also the relentless wave of unlikable characters really hindered the emotional response the story was trying to achieve. A decent thriller, one that is produced to the highest quality possible, but crumbles far too quickly towards its conclusion.

We're in for a shock. A rape from the get go, we expect a rape story. Not at all. It is a psychopathic character story. The woman victim is acquointed to violence, has issue with the police, and is strong. We get it. The guy might have been lucky to get her by surprise. But this is a french film and it is not going to be your regular hero's revenge at all! Hilarious at times, dramatic at times, our bunch of psychopaths keeps us guessing. Excellent!

It´s an insidious disease this; when people reach a certain notoriety or fame, in the eyes of quite a few people they can´t seem to artistically do anything wrong whatsoever. If you have made a name for yourself, whether that be in music, film, art etc., you have reached a godly status and are henceforth impeccable and unassailable as a creator. Nothing can touch you, and if by any chance you happen to see through the shoddy seams of the emperor´s robes, you are accused of not having depth enough to "get" the immortal creator´s vision. It looks like shit,it sounds like shit, it smells like shit and it sure taste like shit, but hey, what do you know?! It´s not really shit, it´s your own limited, narrowminded self that stops you from seeing what a transcendental masterpiece it really is. That is the kind of laughable nonsense being spouted from the mouths of the fawning idiots. Blindness sure comes in multiple forms, sigh... Verhoeven has made one decent film, Basic Instinct, and while not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, it at least had a certain tension and coldness to it that I remember I found tittilating. This piece of trash however? One of the worst films I´ve ever watched, it actually beggars belief.The main character is a middle aged woman who runs a gaming company, and one day out of nowhere a ski-masked man attacks her in her home and proceeds to rape her. Normally after such a harrowing experience one would think that the victim would experience severe mental trauma and would struggle to cope in her everyday life, because that is the hard reality, right? Of course it is, but hey what do you know? It turns out that this rape don´t faze our main character that much, in fact she doesn´t report it to the police, she really don´t want revenge, and she casually mention the incident to her friends. And hey, her friends, it turns out, aren´t that bothered by the episode either, just one of those pesky things that happens, you know. Our main character goes about her life, running her company, interacting with her retarded son ( who for the life of him can´t see that the baby his fiancee has just given birth to can´t be his, because you know, he himself and his fiancee is white as snow and the baby is at least four shades darker than him. Of course the baby is his, of course it is. And Verhoeven gets away with writing this shit?!!! ), her man-eating mother, her academic failure of an ex etc. In between the daily goings on of work and family feuds, a few more rapes is thrown in for good measure, none of them with any tension what so ever. After a while it´s revealed that her rapist is her good neighbour, the one she has a crush on. You would think that this revelation would destroy her world, but considering that the first rape didn´t really leave dent in her, this don´t make much of a negative impression on her artificial soul either. On the contrary, it turns out she quite enjoys being raped, and in between the rapes, she´s having dinner with him and the two of them seems to have quite the lovey-dovey relationship. One usually have such relationships with one´s rapist, doesn´t one? Nothing out of the ordinary I would think. If you want to sink your teeth into a film that is neither her nor there ( what does it want to be? a dark comedy? a psychological thriller? a family drama? a deep commentary on the dehumanizing of rape? an erotic romp in the delights of s&m? who knows and frankly who cares ), a film where every character is behaving and reacting like automatons and as such impossible to empathise with in any way ( none of them is expressing any real emotion, no response to the different situations occuring is in any sense close to reality ), a film despite it´s premise managing to display zero tension and thrill, by all means, go right ahead. Just be aware that the golden robe the emperor is wearing is an illusion, what is adorned around his body is on the contrary filthy, stinking, worthless rags. He is not a god at all, he is a beggar. His crown is mud.

I so much want to like Paul Verhoeven films. The promise much in what I want from a film. Good stories told differently, thought provoking plot-lines, interesting characters and, of course, eroticism. Yet, I haven't found any of his films totally convincing. 'Elle' is another that doesn't quite meet it's aims. I think the narrative with multiple plots could have been better told by another director. Isabelle Huppert hold all the stories and the often implausible situations together really well and is outstanding as always but cannot lift the film above average. If not for her lead then the film would have been a 3 or 4 star disaster. Having said that I wonder if the great Miss Huppert is slightly tooold for the role. I think the leading lady is now in her sixties Michele is supposed to be around 50? At times it shows. I wouldn't recommend this film as a must see but would probably recommend it as a dent nights entertainment with good performances and some interesting detail.