Bliss is a powerful and absorbing movie which explores the nature of adult sexuality and love. The plot revolves around the relationship of a newly married yuppie couple,Steve and Maria.We quickly discover that Maria is a compulsive neurotic bordering on the psychotic who is already in therapy and who soon reveals herself to be incapable of having an orgasm. Although an acutely sensitive person she is essentially very loving and copes by faking it. This leads her and eventually her husband to meet with Baltazzar, a sex therapist played with a beguiling calm charisma by Terence Stamp. They thus begin a difficult journey leading to some very important discoveries about themselves. On this journey the Director, Lance Young, engages strongly with such themes as the very nature of sex and love and our capacity to fully give.Steve is a reasonably sensitive man, but like most men has to deal with a strong sexual libido and a dominant male culture which encourages us to put its satisfaction first.His journey is therefore towards increasing awareness and selflessness which ultimately brings its own rewards as he begins to understand the nature of real love and to be able to give and receive it. The sex we see is never gratuitous and has an emotional reality which is rooted in the context of this developing relationship. It is light years away from porn and the simplistic banality of much Hollywood sexual depiction. I suspect many men will be challenged by it in the same way Steve was by the situation he found himself faced with, but it is a journey worth taking.Craig Sheffer and Sheryl Lee give performances as the young couple which ultimately draw us into the movie,but it is Stamp who holds the film together supported by an engaging and often beautiful sound track that heightens its mood. There is a nice twist at the end when Baltazzar embarks on his own new relationship and Steve wryly reflects on the difference between giving advice and putting it into practise with someone you love and whose personality you therefore accept as part of the deal.A film for adults with open hearts and minds. Highly recommended.
Review of Bliss
