ORIGINAL SIN also contains other sexual references, much nudity and an anti-colonialism, Marxist, anti-American subtext theme. Regrettably, thus, ORIGINAL SIN has three of the most graphic sex scenes in a major studio release in recent memory and an ending that rejects redemption in favor of lust and moral ambiguity. What doesn’t quite work is the movie’s frantic ending and final scenes, which are morally confused and anti-climactic. Holding it together are the good performances by the two leads, who clearly have strong chemistry together and a strong screen presence individually. ORIGINAL SIN retains viewers’ attentions, up to a point. Surprisingly for him, Luis falls madly in love with Julia, but she turns out to have a dark, hidden life that threatens to destroy both of them.
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Set in Cuba about 100 years ago, the movie opens with Antonio’s character, Luis, a handsome rich man expecting the arrival of the American bride he wrote to by mail. As the fortunes of Luis and Bonnie/Julia shift from wealth to poverty, the Eve teaches her Adam to cheat at cards, but the trick is detected.Part psychological thriller and gothic romance, ORIGINAL SIN brings together two mysterious and exotic stars, Antonio Banderas and Angelina Jolie, to re-create a tale of passion, betrayal, murder, and love. As Terence Blanchard's Hispanic-flavored score attempts to strum up some suspense, the threesome plays life-and-death games with guns and rat poison. Luis, who still loves his bride, tries drinking and a brothel (where he meets the detective), then pursues his Eurydice to Havana where he discovers that the detective, Walter Downs, is really Billy, the ex-lover of Bonnie, who has apparently disposed of the real Julia. Julia disappears with the money from her husband's bank account after a detective woodenly played by Thomas Jane turns up, along with the sister of the real Julia. In consequence, "Original Sin" slips into a tedious tale of three uninteresting characters. This Lola smokes cigars, but we never catch a glimpse of her in a circus ring. Although it turns out that she once trod the boards, more is not made of this gypsy life. Julia hastens backstage at intermission, where her husband finds her talking with an actor. The play is "Faust," and Jolie's beloved brother, James Haven, can be seen from a distance in the title role. One of the film's most arresting scenes comes when Julia and Luis attend the theater with his partner, a courtly Southern planter type played by Australia's Jack Thompson, and his snippy wife. Her opalescent eyes have a faraway look, and her corseted movements are stiff and a bit spooky. But Jolie, whose acting here often consists of little breaths of sound, "ahs" and "ums," seems merely to be playing a Victorian mannequin unsure of who she is or what she wants. Perhaps Cristofer saw her as a Lola Montes, a woman before her time as a lover of men and a cigar-smoking conquerer of kingdoms before her fall. Jolie's Bonnie Castle, also known as Julia Russell, serves as narrator of this film noir and also as its femme fatale. Cristofer's adaptation of "Waltz Into Darkness" by Cornell Woolrich is doomed from the start by the close-up of Jolie's famously puff-mama lips, as luscious as overripe fruit. But the sexual attraction comes across as mere choreography. Under the overwrought but deadly direction of Michael Cristofer, who claims to be paying homage to the heady, swirling techniques of Max Ophuls ("Lola Montes"), Banderas and Jolie indulge in nude intertwinings shot from various angles. "Original Sin" turns out to be one of the most tiresome movies about love and sex and murder and deception ever made, as it contrasts the honest and sincere acting of Antonio Banderas with the naughty-kitty games of Angelina Jolie.