Main Cast: Christopher Walken, Rupert Everett, Natasha Richardson, Helen Mirren, Manfredi Aliquo
Release Year: 1991
Country: US/UK/IT
Run Time: 102 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
In this erotic thriller, a young English couple on vacation in Venice find themselves seduced by a mysterious older couple. Mary (Natasha Richardson) and Colin (Rupert Everett) have come to Italy to chart the future of their troubled relationship. They soon meet Robert (Christopher Walken), the enigmatic owner of a picturesque watering hole. He entertains them with copious vino and colorful stories of a childhood spent with a brutal, domineering father. Later, drunk and lost in the maze-like city, the couple once again encounter Robert, who puts them up at his gorgeous villa. They also meet his wife, Caroline (Helen Mirren), who suffers from crippling back pain and obvious emotional instability. Fascinated by the glamorous older couple but disturbed by their dysfunctions, Colin and Mary find themselves slowly drawn into sexual and emotional games that culminate in sudden violence. Directed by Paul Schrader, The Comfort of Strangers was adapted by playwright Harold Pinter from the novel by Ian McEwan. Richardson previously starred in Patty Hearst, Schrader's portrait of the newspaper heiress-turned-terrorist. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Review
Like many of Paul Schrader's films, The Comfort of Strangers is a mournful examination of decaying innocence and sexual transgression. With the alien, old-world beauty of Venice providing both the picture-perfect backdrop and the grimy emotional context, the film wanders slowly off the beaten path and into danger. Rupert Everett is appropriately callow and Natasha Richardson fittingly naïve, their English tourist protagonists led inexorably astray by the depraved Eurotrash sophisticate played by Christopher Walken. Nailing screenwriter Harold Pinter's typically elliptical, repetitive dialogue, Walken exudes sinister charm without devolving into villainous schtick. Meanwhile, Helen Mirren plays his enigmatic wife with a mixture of masochistic passivity and morbid sex appeal; of the two, her character is the far more disturbing. Unfortunately, the film's sumptuous setting and Schrader's glassy sensuality don't always mesh well with the messy subject matter. Reserved and voyeuristic, the filmmaker is content to watch the characters play out their ugly little drama from a dreamy distance. Suggestive rather than elucidative, the film lacks the moral complexities that made the subsequent Light Sleeper one of Schrader's all-time best. Nevertheless, The Comfort of Strangers has enough fine performances and intriguing ideas to satisfy fans of the director's oeuvre and of psychological thrillers in general. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Giancarlo Previati - First Policeman; Antonio Serrano - Second Policeman; Rossana Caghiari - Hotel Maid; Daniel Franco - Waiter; Mary Selway; David Ford - Waiter
Credit
Luigi Marchione - Art Director, Linda Reisman - Associate Producer, John Thompson - Associate Producer, Giorgio Armani - Costume Designer, Mariolina Bono - Costume Designer, Paul Schrader - Director, Bill Pankow - Editor, Angelo Badalamenti - Composer (Music Score), Gianni Quaranta - Production Designer, Dante Spinotti - Cinematographer, Mario Cotone - Producer, Angelo Rizzoli - Producer, Stefano Paltrinieri - Set Designer, Harold Pinter - Screenwriter, Rachel Griffiths - Script Supervisor, Ian McEwan - Book Author
Colin (Everett) and Mary (Richardson), a couple unsure of where their relationship is going, are on holiday in Venice where they meet Robert (Walken), a smooth bar owner who tells them stories about his abusive father and the humiliating revenge which Robert's four sisters took on both the father and Robert himself. Although Colin and Mary find Robert and his wife, the stylish and demure Caroline (Mirren) less than agreeable company, they are inexplicably, almost hypnotically drawn to the older couple, who turn out to be even more dangerous than they seem, leading to a violent climax.
Schrader has said of McEwan's book that it is "terrific, but a little one-sided" and that he was not sure he agreed with its theme, that "no amount of civilization can overcome the fundamental hostility between men and women".
Changes were also made to the character of Robert. In the book, Robert is a young thug with a gold chain and a pattern of pistols embroidered into his shirt; Schrader did not think an audience would believe Colin and Mary would go off with such a man, so Walken plays the character as a suave, Armani-suited cosmopolitan.
