As Good As It Gets

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

I first saw this film on the shelves in HMV and thought it looked good but didn't chance buying it in case it turned out to be another torture porn disguised as a horror with a dominating man demanding sex from a vulnerable woman. This, thank God, turned out not to be the case. The film features three main characters, a married couple, Allie and Tom and their intruder, Aaron. The couple are engaging in sex when an intruder breaks in and knocks them out. The couple wake up, Tom is tied up in the bath and Allie is hanging from the kitchen ceiling, what follows, is a weekend of them being held hostage in their own home.But this is not ordinary kidnap horror story line, these characters have a depth to them that almost makes you root for the characters you think you should hate, and hate the characters you ought to love.Overall i think this film is very unique, with no other story lines that are similar to my knowledge. The acting is utterly brilliant for the roles of Allie and Aaron and their chemistry is amazing with the ability to switch between tension and fear to affection and almost a sense of real love.I highly recommend this dutch made film, i hope my review was somewhat helpful in convincing you to watch!

Deadly Virtues: Love.Honour.Obey. With a title like that I should have see it coming. But nevertheless I still watched the movie. My bad though, because honestly there are tons of better movies then this one. It starts promising, where you have the feeling it might become a good thriller, but piece by piece as the story unfolds you realize you're going nowhere with this story. It's just an unrealistic and quite boring movie. The actors are not that bad, neither are they future Oscar winners, but with a story like that you can't just have a good movie. It's just impossible. I think they tries to create some sexual tension, but it's just a failure. The end is also a completely letdown. Too ridiculous for words in fact. I wished I didn't waste my time with this one.

Ate De Jong brings Mark Rogers' story of fetish, and horror to life in dark, visceral , sometimes uncomfortable intensity. Normally I pass on films that I consider torture porn, or at least I bail on the film once I get that impression. I am glad that I did not check out on "Deadly Virtues" because it is definitely a tight, methodical nightmare that pushes one to experience that taboo in the horror genre, the eroticism of sexual nightmares. Much like "Straw Dogs (the remake)", this movie goes into those areas and exploits those darker subjects. "Deadly Virtues" doesn't completely nail it, there are moments that play out almost like cliché of the erotic horror subgenre. At times the energy falters, and certain moments that could have really pushed the horror over the edge are only mediocre. That being said, the characters are developed more than you usually see in these sorts of stories, the subtext is deep and dark, and the acting is captivating enough to cause you to built a very intense connection with the characters. Plus the ending is one that I didn't quite see coming, made me angry until the ending finally played out- an ending that is well worth setting through the sexual overture that runs through "Deadly Virtues", and that sense of discomfort in seeing some of the scenes play out. Overall, "Deadly Virtues" is worth watching on so many levels. I enjoyed being pushed into less comfortable forays of "what is horror" and "what is erotic". Rogers story balances it nicely and De Jong brings it to scream wonderfully. The special effects are practical, even though they are limited and not a big focal point of the movie. The real focal point of "Deadly Virtues" comes from actually watching the film, experiencing this situation through the eyes of these tragic characters, and that ending. This is one of the better, more elevated torture-porn, exploitation, and modern cult films I have seen in a while.

I saw this film at the Imagine (sf/horror/fantasy) filmfestival Amsterdam 2014. Very good script, continuously unclear where the story was heading. Especially nice was that the couple in the house seemed 100% victims at first, but that changed throughout later developments, particularly after revealing some black spots for the husband. Eventually all loose ends vanished one by one, including the final scene revealing the initially unexplained method how the attacker silently entered the house without ringing the doorbell. You may infer from it that the same can happen to you in the foreseeable future.Believable characters throughout, but cannot tell much more in fear of spoiling. This film ended undeservedly on a lowly 36th place (out of 43) for the audience award with score 6.43. An IMDb score of 5.6 is also not what it should be, in my not-so-humble opinion.