Original sin

Year of release : 2001

Run time : 1h58m

Genre : Romance / Erotic Thriller

Cast : Angelina Jolie, Antonio Banderas, Thomas Jane

The movie is based on the 1947 Cornell Woolrich novel “Waltz into darkness”.

XIXth century, Cuba, under the Spanish rule. A woman is telling her story to a priest as a confession of sins, while she’s waiting to be executed.

She was a young woman who needed a husband, and he was a man who wanted a wife.

Luis is ready to marry a woman he has never met, but corresponded with through letters, and can’t be talked out of it by his friends and employees, as his business partner tells him she is ugly from her picture. Luis tells him he doesn’t care, as he’s never been in love and doesn’t believe in love, and he only wants a kind wife who can bear children.

The next morning he waits for her in the harbour, as she’s sailing from the USA.

When people get off the boat, no one resembling the picture approaches him, and just when he thought she stood him up, a beautiful woman approaches him telling him she’s Julia, the woman he seeks, and sent him the picture of another woman, as she didn’t want him to want her for her beauty.

Luis confesses he lied to her too, as he owns the business and the house.

Julia says they have deception in common, as they are both not to be trusted. Little did he know, she was talking about herself.

They marry right away, at 9 o’clock in the morning.

Luis is completely taken with her, the way she is, the way she talks and acts. Julia seems to be taken with Luis too, as she seems shocked Luis doesn’t demand his conjugal rights right away, and let’s her come to him whenever she’s ready, telling her she can take even months to get accustomed to him!

From the next day, Luis notices Julia drinks coffee instead of tea (unlike what she said in her letters), but she says she lied in her letters, as her sister thought coffee to be a sinful pleasure. Luis thinks nothing of it.

Luis shows her his coffee plantation, they talk more about themselves, and get to know each other.

They become intimate, and soon, Julia takes him to the theatre, as she loves a certain troupe which is in town.

There, she leaves him and his business partner, to see someone working in the theatre company.

Luis sees her, and going after her he sees her talking to a man. She just says she was lost and asked for instructions.

Because she doesn’t answer her sister’s letters, and Luis reads them, she tells him her sister was always mean to her. Although she doesn’t want to, she writes to her, and Luis offers to take the letter to the post office, although she insists to do it herself.

At night she has nightmares. Luis notices she has scars on her back, as if she was cut with a knife.

Luis gives her full rights to his bank accounts, and she starts spending on new dresses, as he is madly in love with her. He wants to give her everything ,and wants everything from her.

When he lives his meeting with his business partner and friend, he meets a private investigator who tells him he was hired by Julia’s sister, as she didn’t write her back. Luis assures him Julia is his wife now, and is safe and happy. Luis invites the man to his place, to see for himself she is alive and well.

When he tells Julia about the private investigator her mood changes, and gets angry with the bird she came with from the USA.

Right after, Luis finds the bird with its neck broken.

Julia’s sister comes to see Luis, and she tells him the letter his Julia sent her is not in her sister’s handwriting.

Luis rides home as fast as he can, but when he gets there, Julia is gone. He opens the chest she brought with her, that she never opened, and discovers she’s not Julia.

He finds out she cleared both of his bank accounts.

With her gone, Luis turns to drinking and pr0stitutes, as he wants her back (cause that’s what you do when you want someone back).

While drunk in the wh0re house, the private investigator finds him, and talking to him, he tells him he wants to find her and k1ll her.

The private investigator wants to work with him, so he could find her. At this point, he’s supposed to have no more money, but somehow, Luis does. They start investigating, and find from the people working on the boat the real Julia saved salad pieces for her bird, while the fake one travelled with a theatre company.

Traveling to Havana, the private investigator steals Luis’ gun.

Going to a restaurant by himself, Luis hears Julia’s voice, and sees her with a married man. He follows her to her hotel room.

After she gets rid of the pushy man, Luis comes out of the closet, asking for answers, and telling her he came to k1ll her, he can’t do it when she is pushing him to. And they end up together again.

Seeing the private investigator on the street, he is trying to keep him from seeing her, but he follows him, and fighting with him, Luis thinks he k1lled him, but he replaced his bullets with blanks when he took his gun, so he is not dead, being an actor named Billy, and just wants Julia, who’s real name is Bonny, back, as she ran away from him (hence him teaming up with Luis, thinking he knows where she is).

Luis sells his share of the coffee company to his business partner, and leaves with Bonny, thinking he k1lled a man, being wanted by the police.

Billy’s intentions are known, and he just wants to scam Luis even more, taking everything he’s got with Bonny’s help.

The movie started well, but lost me with the back and forth. I personally don’t like movies with weak characters who let others walk all over them, and let others manipulate and use them. That’s pretty much what happens here, Julia / Bonny doesn’t seem to have a mind of her own, and can’t decide if she wants Luis or not, or if she loves him or not, for she keeps on doing what her master manipulator tells her SPOILER she even fricking p0isons him, although she knows Luis loves her and would do anything for her! END OF SPOILER

I do not like dramas, as there’s enough drama in reality, I want movies to be an escape, to feel good while watching them, to feel refreshed after I watched them, I don’t want to worry about characters and get frustrated for what they do or don’t do, about their choices and bad decisions, and feel drained after I watched them.

I really liked the first part of the movie, with the blossoming love story. After, with Luis losing himself in drink and pr0stitutes, and Billy who can’t ever have enough money, the movie slowly lost me. This movie or love story was like a beautiful apple, rotten on the inside.

The movie is narrated by Julia / Bonny, but we see what happens to Luis when she’s not around, instead of what happens to her, so how does she know for sure what he did? I hate when they do this in movies!

Luis loses everything once he falls for Julia. All his money, his business, his house.

Billy is vile, he cuts her when they do the nasty, and in one scene he even spits in her mouth! He takes all of Luis’ money from his bank accounts, but it’s not enough, he wants it all! And then wants him dead, for he sees Bonny loves him.So he makes her k1ll him.

I liked the world they created, the places where they filmed, the houses were so beautiful. I liked Angelina’s dresses.

The acting was good. Ironically Angelina was nominated for a Raspberry Award for this role, but I thought she was fine. She is seductive, in love, shy, playful, beautiful, sexy, a femme fatale. But also, sad and scared, and crying.

The soundtrack seemed to have blended classical music with Latin and Cuban influences of the XIXth century, matching the setting.

The movie grossed 35.4 million dollars at the box office, against a production budget close to 42 million dollars.

The movie holds a critics rating under 33% on Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes, and a 64% score from the audiences on the same platforms. IMDB rated it a 6 out of 10.

Viewer discretion is advised, as the movie contains nudity.

You can watch the full movie on the Ok.Ru platform in English or dubbed.

Rating : Worth a watch !