I got talked into seeing this movie years ago by some pretentious friends, wasn't all that impressed by it, and insulted it gratuitously on the walk home from the theater. It's not very well-acted, the plot is incomprehensible inasmuch as it even exists, and the sex scenes, explicit and implicit, are nowhere near as titillating as the title or promotion would suggest. But somehow I remember this movie with near-perfect clarity over a decade later. Why? The structure is fascinating -- I'd never seen a narrative structured as a progression of random encounters. And even if no scene is particularly compelling and no character is especially distinctive, the movie manages to be thought-provoking. Since every scene is obviously intended to depict a seduction, you start to wonder about the nature of attraction and power relationships. On a cinematic level, New York looks pretty, Linda Fiorentino is hot, the gay boys are all handsomely lit, and Malcolm McDowell is an embarrassment to the art of acting. Stop now before you hurt someone else.
Review of Chain of Desire
