Lie With Me | 
| Director: Clement Virgo
Actors: Lauren Lee Smith, Eric Balfour, Polly Shannon, Mayko Nguyen, Michael Facciolo
Studio: Velocity / Thinkfilm
List Price: $7.99
Buy New: $4.37
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Rating:  55 reviews
Sales Rank: 187
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 93 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: TF-53415
UPC: 821575534154
EAN: 0821575534154
ASIN: B000DZ95MG
Theatrical Release Date: 2005
Release Date: February 14, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW AND FACTORY SEALED
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Product Description
Controversial brave and extremely sexually explicit Clement Virgo's LIE WITH ME examines the often raw relationship between David (Eric Balfour) and Leila (Lauren Lee Smith) two emotionally damaged young people living in Toronto. Each feels trapped in a bleak life and attempts to find some kind of escape with the other.System Requirements:Running Time 93 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 821575534154 Manufacturer No: TF-53415
Amazon.com
Shot in sunny Toronto and set to a dreamy score, Lie With Me looks and sounds like an art film, but the end result isn't quite so lofty. The plot is thin and the dialogue superfluous, but no matter--Canada's Clement Virgo (Love Come Down) just wants to turn you on and he has enlisted two attractive, uninhibited young performers to assist in his aims. Leila (Lauren Lee Smith, The L Word) and David (Eric Balfour, Six Feet Under) meet at a party. He's with his girlfriend, but finds himself drawn to her. The feeling is mutual. She's alone, but quickly finds an unattached hipster with whom to have a tryst. David catches her in the act. Instead of turning away, he watches. They start seeing each other immediately afterwards. "I'm not hooked on danger, [I'm] hooked on sex," Leila claims, but she isn't exactly the most trustworthy narrator. She wants a purely physical relationship, while David wants something more. They return to their old lives, but the obsession refuses to die. Based on the novella by Virgo's partner, Tamara Berger, Lie With Me plays like a low-budget cross between Adrian Lyne's overrated 9 1/2 Weeks and Wayne Wang's underrated The Center of the World. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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| Customer Reviews: Read 50 more reviews...
 Lots of hot sex but leaves you with an empty feeling... Beautiful DVD transfer May 28, 2006
dooby
292 out of 298 found this review helpful
This was fun to watch yet at the same time rather disappointing (maybe depressing would be a better description). Fun if you go into it expecting sex, pretty faces and writhing bodies. But disappointing because there is little else besides. Depressing because the main characters appear so selfish, self-absorbed and are not in fact very likeable. Its main theme is about two emotionally immature individuals, learning rather late in life, the difference between lust and love. It's based on a short story by Tamara Faith Berger who also happens to be director Clement Virgo's wife. To its credit it tackles the lust vs love angle reasonably well.
For our protagonist Leila, life is one sexual encounter after another, free of emotional attachment, free of commitment, free of love. It opens with a naked Leila (the lovely Lauren Lee Smith) alone on the couch, masturbating while watching a porn video. There is no major dialogue until at least 10 minutes into the film and even then it is pretty banal if not trite, reflecting in a way the shallowness of these individuals. Director Virgo notes that he was trying to make a visual film as opposed to a talkie. And visually, it is beautifully shot. Leila goes to a party, meets David (Eric Balfour), with whom she feels an instant and mutual attraction. However he is with his girlfriend, Victoria (Polly Shannon). So she snares another lucky male whom she proceeds to bl__ and fu__ in the parking lot, in full view of David and his girlfriend, who naturally do the same thing, both couples more interested in the opposite pair than in their own partners. David of course is enthralled with Leila and hooks up with her. They have sex. Then they have more sex. And that's all they have. They don't really have a relationship. They don't communicate. They just copulate. Like rutting animals. Throughout the film, sex is depicted as mechanical, selfish and purely physical and although arousing, it is emotionally empty. The main impression I was left with was one of emptiness, hollowness and how sad these people were, physically connecting yet mentally and emotionally all alone. So much so that when David's ailing father whom he's been dotingly caring for dies, Leila cannot empathise, much less give solace. And neither is David of much help when Leila struggles with her parents' own breakup.
Luckless girlfriend Victoria (Polly Shannon) is, for me anyway, the most sympathetic character here. Of the three she is the only one with any insight into their relationship. She is also given some of the more memorable lines in the movie. During her confrontation with Leila, she warns him against David, "He's got intimacy issues. He needs a mommy," and more cruelly but to the point, "You can suck a guy's dick all you want. It doesn't mean he's ever gonna love you." She may be cast as the "other" woman but you can't help sympathising with her and thinking that she's better off rid of him. Virgo's need to have a "happy ending" where the characters come together after realising their love for each other is simply not convincing. It's hard to believe that these self-absorbed, narcissistic personalities could suddenly develop the insight to relate to someone, other than on a purely sensual level. The odd result is that, apart from the sex scenes, the movie when viewed as a whole, has a pretty depressing feel to it. Still, quibbles about the film aside, the sex scenes are not in the least bit disappointing. In fact, they are hot. Very much so. They are a lot more erotically arousing than in the bulk of porn material shot today which is so clinically anatomical as to no longer be erotic.
Although the DVD is unrated, it would most likely merit an NC-17. The sex scenes are as close to hardcore as you can get without it being X-rated. The missing elements are the money-shots and scenes of actual penetration. Otherwise everything else is there, right down to Leila playfully handling David's little thingie.
Lauren Lee Smith is gorgeous to look at and a very good actress. It took guts to do what she did here and I hope it pays off for her in the future. She should be in more films if only she could make time in between shooting "The L Word." In the commentary, director Virgo and Smith discuss how they first met when he directed her in her first lesbian scene in "The L Word."
The film has been beautifully transferred to DVD in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio (enhanced for widescreen TV). The film as we learn in the commentary was shot on Super 16mm so there is a slight graininess throughout as would be expected from this medium. Otherwise it looks gorgeous. Colors are vibrantly rich, black levels are accurately set, the golden summer palette that Virgo chooses for the film comes through handsomely. Sound comes in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby 2.0 Stereo. Dialogue is recorded at a very low level and is at times barely audible while the pounding music from the nightclub scenes are overwhelmingly loud. Rather like a porn video. I was constantly reaching for the remote to raise and lower the volume. There is an accompanying trailer, a photo gallery and of course the commentary by director Clement Virgo and Lauren Lee Smith who breaks into infectious laughter whenever she's asked to comment on her sex scenes. There is however no behind the scenes footage as advertised by Amazon. In the end, it may not count as a truly thought-provoking or even very credible film but it is arousingly enjoyable nonetheless. From the other reviews here, I take it most viewers will be seeing it for the sex. So, as far as the star ratings go: Five stars for the sizzling hot sex and for Lauren Lee Smith, three and a half for the movie itself.
 It felt like a mediocre book I once read, but it was ultimately worth watching July 6, 2006
Billy Halsey (San Diego, CA USA)
67 out of 74 found this review helpful
* SPOILER ALERT: This review reveals key elements of the plot *
I liked it. But it didn't resonate with me like the first five minutes promised it would. When the movie began, I felt Leila, the anti-heroine, promising me, "You will relate to me."
At first I did. The blankness in her eyes as she went out to get what she both needed and hated I had felt myself too many times. When Leila and David were playing their cat-and-mouse game, the "I'll show you mine if you show me yours," they both seemed six years old: emotionally, they both are. Things began to get uneasy for me as the viewer.
The next seventy percent or so of the movie was filled with more sex than you can shake an, er, stick at, and nothing about that bothered me (especially Eric Balfour's totally nude body). When the relationship between Leila and David began to unravel, it became apparent to me that both of them likely were diagnosable borderlines, a personality disorder, and from that point, my hopes for a successful resolution to the movie were nil. Would they live happily ever after? Would they continue their cycle of alternating emotional abuse? How would the movie end?
Ultimately, the ending DIDN'T satisfy, as I was afraid it wouldn't, but then, wasn't the whole movie about NOT being satisfied?
Director Clement Virgo's use of harsh lighting, fast panning, and extreme closeups is very effective in this film. I would consider watching some of his other work, but I'm not sure whether I'd recommend this one on its intellectual merits. On its more visceral merits, however, it fits the bill almost as well as Larry Clark's Ken Park.
 Clement Virgo's Lie With Me is self-indulgent porn masquerading as an 'art' film June 22, 2007
Rebecca Huston (On the Banks of the Hudson)
57 out of 78 found this review helpful
I've learnt to spot the danger signs of an impending bad movie. One of them is when the director is also the screenwriter and producer -- in short, there's no one there to put the brakes on when the film starts to get too self-absorbed. Such is the case with this Canadian indie film that seems to have gone straight to video.
Based on Tamara Berger's novel of the same name (published by the appropriately named Gutter Press), we meet Leila (Lauren Lee Smith), a young woman at a party. She's more than a little tipsy, and looks to be on the scrawny side, dressed clearly with the message that she's there to get laid -- oops, I mean have a good time. One man there is pretty bold about eyeing her, and the pair end up in the bathroom, where he helps her to sober up a little with a drink of water. It almost turns into sex, but his girlfriend calls for him outside and he leaves. He, we find out, is named David (Eric Balfour).
She leaves the party, taking with her Shy Guy (Michael Facciolo), and proceeds to have sex with him outside, up against a chain-link fence. Sitting in his car, watching the pair, is none other than David, along with his girlfriend. David and Leila watch each other getting laid, mimicing each others actions, as it were. At this point, I had a pretty good idea of what this film was going to be about, but as I have this thing about finishing the book or film I start, I didn't turn it off right away.
Eventually, Leila and David meet up again, this time in a public playground, and in a daring moment, she exposes herself to him, making her own interest pretty well known. They move onto his apartment for sex, and the sexual compulsion between the two of them gets going. And in fact that's what most of this film is about -- we're either watching Leila and David going at it like deranged rabbits, or she's letting us know her thoughts and experiences in a voice over that supposed to be titillating and erotic, but sounds more like a bad memoir.
The relationship is pretty predictable -- lust, jealousy phase, playing house together phase, she tries to get it past sex, he withdraws and treats her like trash, they break up, and so on and so forth. Yawn. We've seen this before. While I have to say that the sex at least looks real and honest, the rest of the film isn't that interesting. David, in particular, strikes me as the sort of young man that is fashionable these days -- unshaven, grungy and without any visible means of support. He does take care of an elderly, ailing father, so I guess that's something in his favour. But who in their right mind goes about in dirty jeans without underwear? I had a strong urge to go dip him in a vat of lye.
Leila's not much better. She's perpetually rumpled in skimpy clothing that looks to be ready to fall off at anytime. It's a cheap and sleazy look, and if she's looking for true love or respect from men, it's not a way to really inspire it either. Her personal life isn't that much better -- her parents are going through a divorce, her job is a dead-end job, she seems to spend her free time on the couch watching porn, or partying it up with weed and alcohol. She's not someone I would really care to know in reality either.
In short, this is a couple made for each other. Neither one of them are very responsible, and frankly, he treats her like a piece of meat. I suppose this is what makes this a modern, young adult relationship, sex without strings or emotion. And while the sex does get interesting, I've seen far far better in x-rated film, the only thing this lacks is what is known as the money shot in the trade.
Indeed, Virgo tries to make this as arty as possible, with lots of soft lighting, on location shots in Toronto, use of colour and texture, and I guess that works. But there isn't any sort of plot in this except for the so-called romance between the two leads, and their sexual shenanigans. Oh, there's an attempt or two with the illness of one parent, and the impeding divorce, but the central relationship is so tawdry, the viewer is left with the attitude of so what? by the end.
I don't demand syrupy romance, as long as there is some sort of passion there, but these two are so out of touch with themselves, how can they possibly make it work with each beyond the rubbing together of two body parts? That was the other big complaint with this one -- no one hits a climax that fast, and here it's the slam-bam-thankee-ma'am sort of sex. I kept thinking that she must have had insides of old leather to put up with that.
This is not for children of any age, and I would suspect that most adults would find it a bit on the disturbing side. There is quite a bit of sex in this, with male and female frontal nudity, sex in public, public exposure, sex in public, in cars, with lots of foul language and every form of straight sex that can be performed. There's plenty of drug and alcohol abuse as well. But they do try with a bit of condom use -- after all, this is the age of safe sex, I suppose.
No subtitles, some lackluster trailers for other films, and a voice-over commentary from the director. Nothing really special to watch either.
This is certainly a D-list film. Those who prefer their film to have sex and be honest about it might find a few minutes worth watching, but this 100-minute clunker has nothing else going for it. Those who are looking for a love story will be turned off by the callous brutality and attitudes. It's not a likeable film at all, and I urge you to spend your time with something, anything, else.
Not recommended.
There is no way this movie is Laying down with Me September 14, 2006
Jenny J.J.I. (That Lives in Northern Nevada)
38 out of 44 found this review helpful
If you can get past the bone rack of a woman and Mr. Shaved Chest Hair, who seriously looks like Jimmy Hill of BBC Match of The Day fame (think Mandrake the magician), then you'll probrably enjoy this. This movie is trying to be more profound that it really is. Face facts, this is not a good porn film and not a good love story because it tries too much to be both. Basically, any movie with voice-over narration you know is in trouble because it means the story needs explanation that pictures and the actors' words cannot convey. Take away the narration and you maybe would have a half-decent fillum as then it would be left more to your own imagination as to why the woman is basically messed up.
"Lie with Me" is the story of a woman, who likes sex, and a man who also likes sex and all the empty emotions that flow around them... that's pretty much it. I couldn't even say that the plot goes downwards since it doesn't go anywhere at all. There is about one thing happening in this film and its sex; there is no intrigue, or none that's worth being intrigued by anyway, except for "will this ever end!" Very long moments could have been cut off the movie and, in the same way, some moments could have benefited from being longer. The main characters are empty, underdeveloped and we can't feel anything for them because they're too busy having sex and that, to me is okay, but not that interesting. As for the secondary characters, they're not even developed at all, there are many of them and they could just as well have not been there; again, not enough of the good or interesting stuff and too much of the boring empty stuff. At least it's not just about the women being naked all the time. In this, the men get equal attention, and that's good.
The director tries to pulls us away from those distractions by giving us some beautiful scenery; such as the bed with white sheets, white pillow cases and white drapes. Come on! Where did they get that--Metaphors R Us? Then, of course, her own parents are in the midst of a separation. Oh, well, that explains everything. At least I get to see the sights of Toronto which is a wonderful city.
"Lie with Me" is unrated of course and if it had it would have been rated NC-17 due to the sex segments. Another reason I can see why critics would voice out "Oooh and Aaah's" is with the male full frontal. Give me a break...rent a porno and save yourself the bother. This was surely one lousy Antonioni film but at least it was better than "9 Song"....Gosh!
 Utterly Unsatisfying July 30, 2007
~LEON~ (UK)
33 out of 36 found this review helpful
What can I say? I'm sure I bought this for the same reason everyone else did, and boy what a let-down.
Not to be ignorant or apathetic, I will focus my review on the film as a whole, not just the much talked about "graphic scenes of real sex" *cough cough*.
Allow me first to point out all the good things, then all the bad:
GOOD: The female lead is gorgeous.
That's it.
I guess the score has its charm too, but only cos it's always set to shots of her attractive face, so I'm gonna lump that all in as one bullet point.
NOT SO GOOD: Where do I start? Although the girl is very attractive, the scenes of her having sex are not in the least bit exciting, so she might as well not be.
The male lead is UTTERLY miscast, as a romantic lead, as an erotic lead, this guy totally misses the mark on ALL counts. And did I say romantic? Come to think of it, did I even say erotic?? Sorry guys but this film is a big fat neither. The much hyped "real" sex scenes are nothing short of completely pathetic, with not a single sexual encounter between the two "stars" (of which there are only two or three in the whole film) lasting more than a minute - literally, a 60 second minute. And these aren't artfully composed edited highlights, these are beginning-to-end realtime scenes. Think I'm kidding?
I can understand the first time they're together and there's all this sexual tension and electricity and lust (although as a viewer I just had to assume this, I certainly didn't feel any of it coming from the two actors) and the guy just can't contain himself, but this and every subsequent time they're together he finishes in less than a minute.
Which leads to another thing; throughout the film the girl narrates a contrived monologue sprinkled liberally with new-age promiscuous pleasure-seeking slang, this girl obviously thinks highly of herself sexually, yet the whole point of the film is that she becomes consumed by physically being with a man who cannot last more than 60 seconds in the sack. Even within the shallow parameters set by the film itself, this film fails to convince; and on any real level beyond that, it completely falls flat on its face. At one point he tells her he thinks about her all day and all night etc. etc. and I was left thinking "Whu?". There's just no passion between these two whatsoever, not as people, and not as bodies in a bedroom either. The simple and usually obvious dialogue is left to convince us of something entirely lacking in any other place we might look for it.
At one point after being with the guy the girl tells us, "I always thought a man loved with his c_ck", as if she now knows real love and a man who can love her with something other than his c_ck, after what? A one night stand with a guy whose only interest was to have sex with you??? How does that work?
Well, quite simply, it doesn't. Neither does the rest of this film. Not for a second.
If you're only interested in the real sex scenes, I can open a raincloud on your parade and tell you that the films entire sex scenes tally less than a few minutes, and are utterly uninteresting anyway. If you're interested in this film in a more holistic way, I can tell you that you're barking up an even wronger tree.
If this review is all over the place it is only cos the film itself is an equal mess.
STAY AWAY!
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