With "The Loss of Sexual Innocence," Mike Figgis has reminded the movie-goer that in its truest form, film is meant to evoke a feeling in the viewer. Like any often misunderstood art, "Loss..." must be experienced, rather than fully understood. The images on the screen, coupled with the masterful use of score absorbs the viewer, resulting in him harboring different emotions and views regarding the film itself and the ideas it presents. There are few writers and directors today that are confident enough in their film's power to almost entirely rob it of dialogue, but Figgis takes that risk and succeeds in increasing the emotional intensity of the experience. Most have spoken against this, but have we forgotten that Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey," a film about silence, mood, and image won an Oscar for its (minimalist) screenplay?
I don't doubt there are people that will simply not understand this film. We have been raised on the Hollywood vision: big stars, big thrills, little plot, little thought. Now that something comes along to challenge that, they don't know what to do - they can't understand it, and because they spend so much time trying to understand it, they miss the point. I highly recommend this film to anyone who is willing to sit down and be taken by its impact - and wait until the film is over to put its pieces in place.
I don't doubt there are people that will simply not understand this film. We have been raised on the Hollywood vision: big stars, big thrills, little plot, little thought. Now that something comes along to challenge that, they don't know what to do - they can't understand it, and because they spend so much time trying to understand it, they miss the point. I highly recommend this film to anyone who is willing to sit down and be taken by its impact - and wait until the film is over to put its pieces in place.