Customer Reviews

Fascination

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

A thriller riddled with paranoia and distrust. FASCINATION is an acute study of a man stretched to breaking point by an egregious set of circumstances. Scott (Adam Garcia- who is always great looking and a wonderful actor!) is both stricken and confused when his mother, Maureen (Jacqueline Bisset), announces she is going to marry another man named Olilver (Stuart Wilson) just three weeks after the tragic death of his father, who drowned.

Scott looks on in horror, although he falls for Oliver's very attractive and shapely daughter, Kelly (Alice Evans). Equally suspicious of the impending nuptials, Kelly joins Scott in an investigation into the foggy circumstances surrounding his father's death...

Stylistically tilting towards the dusky shadows of classic film noir, FASCINATION plays an exquisite guessing game with its viewers, who should take nothing for granted in this inventive and stimulating movie.

Klaus Menzel's debut as a director is a compelling combination of a Film Noire and a tragic lovestory. "Fascination" is more about the consequences of a crime than crime itself. It deals with obesession, distrust and intrigue that change the perfect world of a high society family into a living nightmare. Grand actors like Jaqueline Bisset and Stuart Wilson but also the newcomers Adam Garcia and Alice Evans convince as lead characters in this "dangerous" lovestory. The soundtrack contributes perfectly to this exciting and unconventional thriller that made the audience hold their breath until the very end.

Looking for a really good thriller, I spotted "Fascination," with Jacqueline Bisset and was sure that with her and the cast, my husband and I had found the perfect summer film on DVD. What a disappointment. Although Bisset rallies to the role, the same cannot be said of the other actors. The dialogue is painfully inept at conveying anything in the least bit sexy, provocative or psychologically intriguing. The cloying, saccharine musical score doesn't help. Whereas the music in "The Swimming Pool," or "The Wide Sargasso Sea," enhances, heightens the dramatic intensity, mystery and sensuality, the musak in "Fascination," undermines whatever potential drama there might be. The characters other than Bisset and her unfortunate first husband seem too infatuated with themselves to be erotically convincing. As an ensemble cast, they seem indifferent to both the story and their audience. Magnificent bodies and sexy entanglements are not enough, in my opinion, to compensate for the pedestrian acting and rather predictable plot.

Jacqueline Bisset deserves better and so do we viewers.

I rented this DVD because I've seen Adam Garcia in other movies. I thought the movie was good and kept me in suspense with some of the unexpected twists & turns. Alice Evans was pretty good too (although I did get confused about who she "really" was at times). Overall, it's definitely a movie worth watching.

What can i say about this movie,but hot,wild,sexy,steamy thriller that has you from the very beginning!!!!!! The story goes this young rich guy's dad dies while swimming one day,but he is a good swimmer so that meant that someone killed his father,but of course you will have to see it to find out!!!!!! This movie has it all hot setting,hot cast, hot location!!!!!! If you liked Wild Things then you should rent this movie it is a lot like that movie!!!!!!!!

The first two reviewers did a great job of describing the storyline, so I won't go there. I'll tackle the ending...WHAT ENDING? I even backed it up to see what I missed. THEN, I went to the special features to see an alternate ending. It varied little from the shows ending. After investing the time to see this movie, I hated the ending. However, Jacqueline Bisset is still very lovely. Adam Garcia didn't too badly and I did like the sounndtrack so there were a few saving graces...!

Even though women viewers may love the bedroom scene because Adam Garcia is naked. . . (One reviewer already stated his butt alone is worth the price of the DVD.)
Even though men viewers may love the pool scene because Alice Evans strips off her wet panties. . .
This movie does not work. It doesn't work with either of its supplied endings. It doesn't work because soon after viewing other parts of the story start crumbling. It is a shame--there are creepy, interesting parts. With more nudity, it would have made great pornography; with more story, it would have been a classic.

Everyone knows that the lovely Jacqueline Bisset is a B-grade actress. So you can be pretty certain not to expect too much of a film that she's starring in. Klaus Menzel's Fascination is definitely one of those movies.

Advertised as a sexy, erotic thriller, Fascination is anything but sexy and erotic, coming across as a rather flaccid, adolescent exercise in boutique sex. A hallmark of this film genre is that is should at least typify a certain amount of sleazy seriousness, but Fascination comes across as anything but; it's too over the top to be erotic, and in the end, it's just not that thrilling.

The still ravishingly beautiful, Ms. Bisset plays Maureen Doherty, a wealthy Florida wife and mother, who becomes even richer when her husband (James Naughton) inexplicably drowns in the water off the coast of their exclusive shorefront mansion. They've never had a particularly happy marriage, but this becomes even more painfully obvious when Maureen returns from a recuperative cruise with new fiancé, Oliver Vance (Stuart Wilson) immediately in tow.

Maureen's son Scott (the Australian Adam Garcia) is outraged that she would even consider marrying Oliver so soon after his father's death. Convinced that some thing is "not quite right," Scott has his father's body exhumed to find out whether there were drugs in the dead man's system. His dad was a silver-medallist swimmer in the 1964 Olympics, and he'd swum off the coast thousands of times; it just doesn't seem right that he would inexplicably meet with this kind of accident.

Things get even more mysterious when Scott overhears a mysterious phone call of Oliver's involving the development of a beachfront property that Scott treasures in its natural state. In the end, all this proves just too much for Scott to handle.

But luckily though, Oliver's sexy daughter Kelly (Alice Evans) is around to ease his pain. They enjoy one long, seductive dance at a nightclub on the beach, and also have fully-clothed sex on the slanted roof of the local City Hall in the rain, while their parents are getting married.

There's something mysterious and puzzling about Kelly, and when she tells a story of how her father might have been mixed up in her mother's death, and consequently, Scott's father's death, the young man begins to realize that she maybe part of a "set up" to collect Scott and his mother's fortune.

The revelations come thick and fast, as the characters' pasts catch up with them, and Scott races against time to find out the truth behind his father's supposed accident. Suspicion, duplicity, and betrayal abound as the film stumbles along, and ambles towards a rather preposterous conclusion.

Much of the story consists of dreary, expository conversations as the two kids lay around their parents' picture-postcard, luxury home. Kelly, it seems, is already trying to plant seeds of suspicion in her new lover's head, and it is gradually revealed that she's a truly enigmatic character. But what's Kelly really up to? And what is the truth behind her relationship with Oliver?

The script is mostly laughable. In one instance Kelly anxiously tells Scott: "let me kiss you through the pain" just after their sopping wet, rooftop assignation starts happening. The acting is passable with Bisset probably giving the best performance. Evans and Garcia look terrific, but they're often stiff, and too obviously uncomfortable in their roles, and they have next to no chemistry together.

Fascination is mildly entertaining in a kind of "late-night, cable soft-core" sort of way. There's lots of flowing, gauzy curtains, sweaty bodies, and heavy panting, but none of it is particularly titillating. And the final scene is as outlandish and outrageous as it is welcome. Mike Leonard May 05.

I just saw the DVD...
Yes, Adam Garcia is so sexy! His butt is gorgeous (you can see it naked...this alone justified buying the DVD). And the love scenes are wild, unusual and beautiful. - If you are easily shocked by nudity and you pay a great deal of attention to proper social behavior (like my girl friend who is very religious) you are going to have a problem with parts of this movie. I guess this is meant with "Disturbing". But I love it.
Dangerous: Adam loves "playing with fire" , He is a daredevil with confidence since he believes that he has it under control - which is not always the case as it turns out. Nevertheless, I actually would love to have a boyfriend like Adam in "Fascination" who is "sexy, disturbing and dangerous". - but who is there to protect me...

"She's either the love of his life or the end of it" reads the tagline for "Fascination". And that right there is a big tip-off for what kind of movie to expect. It gives the entire movie away.

Patrick Doherty died in a swimming accident but the odd thing is he was an excellent swimmer, soon, 3 months to be exact his wife, Maureen (Jacqueline Bisset) is engaged to Oliver (Stuwart Wilson) to the dismay of her son Scott (Adam Garcia).

Scott soon meets his step-sister Kelly (Alice Evan) and believe it or not an attraction starts. Soon Kelly, in subtle ways, starts to manipulate Scott's mind and starts making him think his mother killed his father.

"Fascination" really wants to be a steamy sexy thriller. I can see it either as a cinemax late night movie or a WB TV series. The movie even goes as far as to have the guys walk around with open shirts to try and make us, or at least the women, think the movie is sexy. You could compare this movie to the works of Claude Chabrol, the dirty secrets of an upper-class family has always been one of Chabrol's favorite themes. But "Fascination" does not have the pleasure of being directed by Chabrol instead it is directed by Klaus Menzel. Menzel though makes the mistake of taking away all of the mystery of the film. He tries too hard to spell everything out of us. Events become too obvious and thus breaks all the suspense the movie could have created. That is a sign of Menzel's inexperience.

I mentioned that Scott and Kelly have an attraction between them knowing full well they are about to become related. "Fascination" is now starting to open a whole new can of worms for itself as now it's dealing with incest. The reason I question this move is because the movie just doesn't seem interested in exploring these people and instead wants to focus on the mystery of whether Scott's father was murdered. To bring incest in the story means that you are going to have to examine the relationship between these people. "Fascination" does not dwell on the psychological aspect of these people.

Then we have the terrible dialogue. It simply sounds phony. The scene where Scott meets Kelly is an embarrassment for the actors. The pick-up line he uses on her is corny. People don't really talk to each other this way. The movie has problem with that. Dialogue is not written in a convincing way. Even the music is wrong. It tries too hard to be alluring and sexy, like the movie itself. Menzel is hitting us over the head making sure no one walks out of this movie confused. While that is a very nice gesture on his part it really does take out all the suspense of the situation.

"Fascination" has a twist up its sleeve that is just sprung on us. I think it's a cheap shot, you may not. Nothing leading up to this secret though is really suggested.

Is "Fascination" a really bad movie? Not really. One is almost tempted to merely toss it aside as a "guilty pleasure". A movie that doesn't seem to have high ambitious but is entertaining nonetheless. Notice though I said one is "almost" tempted. That doesn't mean that I'm going to do that.

Bottom-line: Despite the pleasure of seeing Jacqueline Bisset the movie doesn't have much to offer. Director Klaus Menzel tries too hard to spell everything out for us but the movie then comes cliche and predictable. The movie carries no suspense.