Female Perversions
(1996)
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Adapted from feminist-Freudian therapist Louise J. Kaplan's theoretical treatise, Female Perversions: The Temptations of Emma Bovary, this provocative, symbolism-heavy feature examines women's incongruent roles in society by delving into the mind of a powerful young attorney whose conflicting professional ambitions and physical desires threaten to drive her to madness. |
Susan Streitfeld makes her directorial debut with this raunchy by name, intermittently raunchy by nature drama based on an analytical book by feminist Louise J Kaplan. Eve (Tilda Swinton) is a high-powered lawyer with judicial aspirations, who is outwardly a model of femininity but is plagued by neuroses. She has a stormy relationship with her sister Madelyn (Amy Madigan), a compulsive shoplifter. Secrets are unravelled and kit is taken off, but despite the promise of something interesting to come, it never actually arrives as Streitfeld gets bogged down in her own pretentiousness and symbolism. Disappointing.