Customer Reviews

Fling

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Fling is a movie about a young sexy couple who believe that they can have an open relationship and jump in and out of bed with others at whim. She begins to fall in love with a former boyfriend. He, on the other hand, is obsessed with lust and sex and wants to bed any girl he can. Their relationship is stretched to the breaking point and eventually something has to give. Will they survive their lifestyle? This movie sexually teases you from beginning to end. Excellent performance by Steve Sandvoss and Courtney Ford. Brandon Routh also turns in an excellent performance.
The movie is worth seeing. You won't be bored. It is fast-paced sexual tease all the way through.

This is one of those movies one is either going to love or either going hate - no in between. As for me, I hated the movie. The only other movie that I would consider on a parallel plane as far as drama goes is Requiem for a Dream. I believe it necessary to review, at least in part, Requiem for a Dream in order to contrast it to Fling.

Before I begin the review I believe it necessary to state that the two situational contexts which I'm most emphatic about are as follows; situations which involve substance abuse or situations which involve human sexuality.

Requiem for a Dream seemed to be a classic example of bad situations gone worse; the acting was great and couldn't have better shown the dark reality of those addicted to or involved with drugs. While some saw Requiem as unnecessarily pessimistic, I saw it as a harsh reality.

Now for Fling, lets start off with the good. The atmosphere was superb, the acting was flawless, and had the drama was very intense. Now, before you dismiss my review as an unsubstantiated contradiction, let me explain what the bad (in my eyes) was.

Obviously, the movie was about open relations, hence the title. The issue that I have is that the plot (in my opinion) exemplifies the most pessimistic decisions the characters in the movie could possibly make. Every character in the movie is not only immature and selfish but also lacks any ability to contemplate the actions of their consequence or the capacity to take five seconds out out of their day to contemplate their future.

Essentially, I find it grossly offensive that most of the public is going to view this as an archetype for open relationships as oppose to its out of context atypical application in the real world. And yes, I know the point of the movie was to show the bad, dramatic side to open relations; I just feel they took it to an extreme, one which made me feel particularly uncomfortable.

If you haven't already done so, watch Latter Days, in which Sandvoss gives a touching and heartfelt performance. In this film, this Harvard grad can't do much with the vapid party talk, mind-numbing, chattery and hollow "script". This film is so poor that, by comparison, "Gossip Girls" seems like a doctoral dissertation. Well, I gave you my take on this DVD, now choose your poison... LOL

I wasn't sure that I would like this movie when I rented it, but I was pleasantly surprised. It made me think about things that normally I wouldn't have (I love it when a movie does that). Does anyone know where to find the soundtrack? I am rarely impressed with movie soundtracks but this one was excellent!

A movie that explores modern relationships between those now in their twenties. The idea of an open relationship might seem weird or unnatural to some and the movie explores this notion and tries to show the reasoning behind being in an open relationship.

I was impressed with this movie. Given the premise of "open relationship" for the main characters, I did not expect to like them much but I did. The acting is very good. I liked seeing Routh in this thoughtful role and the other two leads are terrific. Good supporting characters.
I also thought the photography was beautiful and was surprised that the sexual situations between characters were done with a sense of intimacy without a lot of actual nudity! Very sexy.

"Fling" is one of those "sleeper" hits. The kind of movie that doesn't have blockbuster appeal, but creates its own cult following on the DVD scene. Why? Because it challenges conventional thinking in ways that frighten mainstream mores. To engage in romantic relationships, where each party isn't attempting to the own the other, is counterintuitive to our Judeo-Christian socialization. "Fling" makes an overt commentary that might be missed by the typical viewer--conform or be alone. Granted, it's difficult to be emotionally detached and compartmentalized when feelings emerge in relationships. But, does the emotional conflict derive because we legitimately feel expectations from love or have we been socialized to respond a certain way, because of the societal scripts we read from? If we respond emotionally from the framework of our socialization, I suspect it'll be the later--we feel emotional connection from our psychological scripts.

"Fling" attempts to dissect and explore the emotional possibilities of "Free Love." In keeping with conventional wisdom, Hollywood let's the explorer lose in the end. Not because the idea is preposterous, but because "Free Love" would disrupt life as we know it.

I highly recommend "Fling" to the intellectually enlightened.

[...]

I was really caught off-guard by Fling. From looking at the poster and tagline alone, I hoped I wouldn't be going into a raunchy, shallow romp through sophomoric sexual 'hijinks' filled with all them sexy young honies shakin' their booty-thangs for hairy-palmed mouth breathers and aberrant frat boys across the nation.

What I got instead of that was a thoughtful, down-to-earth look at the modern relationship, and the passion, joy, and most of all confusion that goes into it. In fact, it addresses human relationships, love, and sex so intelligently and honestly that I can't believe it got released.

Naturally, there's still a whole bunch of sex in Fling, but it manages not to be a sexploitation flick, in the same way that it's funny, but not a romantic comedy. It's just a film about people being people, having people problems and dealing with them in less-than-heroic ways. For a while I forgot I was watching a movie. Part of that was because the actors gave a surprisingly convincing performance, but the cinematography played a major role as well. Going with the hand-held style lent a great deal of intimacy and gravity to the events and characters depicted in the movie, and made me feel as if I was a close friend standing in the room, watching things fall apart between my best buds. It also worked to separate the film even further from the big-budget Hollywood flicks that it will inevitably be lumped in with.

Fling was a very new experience for me, a unique film that confronted an important aspect in our culture that virtually no one else in film has addressed with any degree of grace or understanding. A true labor of love. I highly recommend that you scoop up your significant other(s), sit down with them and give this film a watch, and recommend even more that you talk about it afterward.

I saw Fling*, with a fellow Kansas City native, at the Newport Beach Film Festival. When living in Los Angeles, I found I was constantly defending my hometown's charm. This movie can now do it for me. It's beautifully shot, charming and pretty damn funny. Fling* proves Kansas City is just as rad as I boast. This film was worth the ticket price, the resulting way too expensive flight home and now, the DVD. It's a movie a romantic comedy lover can convince her cynical boyfriend to go to and love. Especially if you're not from KC, you have to see this movie.

I think the movie is fast paced and racey in a very fun way. I loved the character Olivia,(played by Shoshana Bush) she is young, yet sophisticated and funny. She is adorable and you can't help but love her. Mason (Steve Sandvoss) was also great. The connection Olivia and Mason had felt very real. There was a lot of great connection with the entire cast as well. I highly recommend this film and can't believe it is not going to be in the theaters.