'Melissa P.' is far too weak and clichéd to be a good film. Upon enjoying 'Lo Sono L'amore' and 'A Bigger Splash' and anticipating 'Call Me By Your Name' I figured I should watch all the other films by Italian director Luca Guadagnino. Due to other poor reviews, and the fact that this is one of Guadagnino's early films, I didn't have many high expectations. However, even my mediocre expectations were disappointed by this film. The story was poorly handled and saturated with predictable clichés that caused the film to be un engaging. Surely though, since this is labelled as an "erotic drama" the love scenes will be appealing? Not at all. They were filmed in a very amateur manner and they were cut short, so nothing really happened. For a movie entered around an individual's sex life, all the sexual tension leads up to a few moments of kissing and then before things get excessive, it's cut short. However, there were a few moments of this film that were rather good, such as the character of Melissa's grandmother, played by the wonderful Geraldine Chaplin. The leading role of Melissa was also played quite well by María Valverde and she pulled off the sexually-charged character quite well. There were also a few moments where Guadagnino's potential was shown through some beautifully filmed scenes that is essentially a good indication of the good to come in his future films. While this film had it's moments, overall it was a disappointing bore. I won't hold this film against Guadagnino as I know it is one of his earlier films, and having seen his more recent, brilliant films, I still commend him as a great director. This movie is a good indication of how far Guadagnino has come in his filmography.

I saw many embarrassed and even angry reviews on this film, which were pushing me off the chair, and i wanna talk not about the film itself, but the topic it chose. Because that caught me in memories of my youth, that is what also makes a great film, the script, and I can't be grateful enough for this made me remember. The film is not as much of a fiction as many would like it to be. In very realistic way discloses the hyper-sensitivity of youth, the feelings, the special way everything is coming to a man's brain, the sex, the colors, messed up thoughts...and then here are decisions. It is wonderful how Melissa always want to choose what to do with her life, what to feel, how to act, what to search for, but somehow the change is only in her deeds but not in her inside, her diary pickups are often in disharmony with what happens to her afterwards. But although she is in fact doing this to herself, she is just so full of it! And so she is coping with her teenage pain as rational as she can in her age. Of course, the sex. When you don't know what it is, but you want it badly. She is less self-aware then the character played by Liv Tyler in Stealing Beauty, but much more pro-active. She doesn't let situations pass by, she is grabbing what she can of them, she does not wait in a corner. That's what i liked at Melissa. The cruelty of acts and the sweetness of the inside. Unsplittable. And that this movie is more real than a sweet romance movie. It is of the age - if she were a little more older, the tender detailed camera would lost its narrative function. And maybe the casting would pickup another actress. Anyway, I love it more and more. It's telling exactly the teen story, which have been missed.

When you see a movie about something controversial you can focus on your opinion on the subject... or you can focus on the film.This is a movie about sex and teenagers, and yo have to choose between your opinion and what the movie is. But when putting stars to a movie or writing down a review... I prefer thinking only about the movie.And... it has an excellent photography, and a pair of really good actress (Marisa Valverde, as Melissa; and Geraldine Chaplin as her grandmother). But the film relays excessively on its matter. It lacks dramatic progression, or any deep sight inside the characters. So you have to get tied only to the sexual experience of the girl.That's why for me the film just deserves a six.But I think it will be ethically wrong to avoid saying a word about its subject. This movie begins as a transgressive one... only to turn around as a conservative one near the end. And I deeply dislike it. The true usually lies in libertine lives.

I just learned this movie is based on a book. I must say I would never read it. The story line has absolutely no value -a young girl believes that just because her first sexual encounter was somehow traumatic, that made her instantly an expert on men and sex- it's really a poor subject. Besides, there are no interesting dialogs nor an appealing related story to support it. The main actress Valverde doesn't look young enough and most of the rest of the cast seems isolated. On the plus side, the movie is nicely shot, the background songs are appropriate and Geraldine Chaplin brings some brightness as the bohemian grandmother. Teenagers sexuality is a subject that should be treated with more depth otherwise the result is sooo vain.