Loss of Sexual Innocence

"Loss of Attention Span" might have been more apropos in view of this film's paucity of plot, languorous pacing, and fever-dream visuals. But writer/director Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) does manage to keep eyelids open with his elliptical collection of cinematic short stories about the ironies, humiliations, and outright tragedies that feast upon innocence, sexual and otherwise. At the center of it all is Nic, whom we meet at various stages in life. Beaky Julian Sands lends an air of self-absorbed detachment to the adult incarnation, whose monotonous prick of a personality is laid bare by Figgis's unswerving voyeurism.

That's not to say the film shuns pretension. Oh no: Adam and Eve (Femi Ogumbanjo and Hanne Klintoe) pad about, Blue Lagoon-style, in a finger-wagging allegory that parallels what can only half-heartedly be called "the main story." Indeed, whereas Figgis's attempt to fathom the complexities of character is refreshing in this age of easy archetypes, his infatuation with such top-lofty symbolism quickly erodes this Loss's gains. At the Avon July 23 and 24 at midnight.
-- Alicia Potter