Cold Showers

Cold Showers (2005, Antony Cordier)
After an aborted attempt to both assess Sydney Pollack's career and simply be entertained by watching "The Firm" (possibly not the best place to start, given that it ranks 17th on his best-to-worst movies on IMDb), I switched to "Cold Showers," in the hopes that it might actually have something to say, or some feeling to express. Thankfully, it does. Treading along what's almost a French cliche, that of the threesome, the movie takes a relatively thorough look at a young couple who introduce a second boy into their sex games. While there are a couple scenes of threesome sex, it's much more about the home life of Johan Libereau (the star of the upcoming Andre Techine film, "Witnesses," and my reason for renting the movie); the sex is, like his judo tournaments, his extra-curricular activity of choice, but it's made more complex and upsetting with the introduction of the third. Although the film is rounded enough to tackle questions of class difference and sexual freedom it more closely concerns itself with the choices people make regarding relationships, their reactions, and how they change things from being the way they once were.