Customer Reviews

The Intended

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From the Danish Film Institute, INTENDED (New Video Group) is Kristian Levring's sexually charged, jungle noir set in 1924 Malaysia. Fleeing eastern European depression, high-minded Sarah (co-writer Janet Mcteer) and her younger lover Hamish arrive at a small ivory trading post deep in the jungle where they hope to earn their fortune for a new life.

But the colony is an oppressive prison for which there is literally no escape during the months when the river runs dry.

This exotic melodrama tracks the rippling effect -- greed, madness and murder -- that Sarah and Hamish unleash on themselves and this remote community of lost souls.

This 2002 film is set in an unnamed dark outpost in Borneo in 1924. The small group of Brits there run an ivory trading business. Into this outpost comes a young man and his fiancé, played by Janet McTeer. The fact that they are not married and she is quite a bit older than him is not lost on the small group which consists of a matriarchal woman who runs the business, her demented adult son and his aging and slightly crazy former nanny played by Olympia Dukakis. There's also a priest who seems to have spent too many years there and a criminal-type nephew who would like to run the business. The setting is dark and mysterious and the story is somber. There's cruelty, murder, insanity and suicide without one bit of lightness in the constant gloom. Yes, the acting is excellent and that is what made me keep watching, but it's such a dismal view of the world that there is no way I can recommend this film to anyone. See it at your own risk.

This film really succeeds in drawing you in. Intriguing yet somewhat disturbing. Interesting story, good acting, and very atmospheric. I felt like I was there, experiencing the film with the characters. Although it wasn't my favorite film, I was very impressed by how it was done. It was like I was "reading" it. Definitely worth a watch. The film takes place in a hot, sweaty location and I really felt like I needed a shower halfway through the film - they really make you feel like you're there.

Well, there go those abominable Europeans again, messing up the pristine Bornean wilderness with their self-hatred, greed, corruption, racism, and sexual perversion! Not what the dvd cover appears to promise? Definitely not. For while prospective viewers are lured by images of an adventurous romance in exotic climes, the film delivers absolutely nothing beyond a sordid wallow in decadence, degradation, and hopelessness. The female protagonist, who is described by her man as "so beautiful", is instead a dowdy, dumpy, frazzled frump who can't even seem to keep her sweaty, greasy, stringy hair out of her face. Her sloppy clothes are perpetually rumpled, damp-looking, and dirty. Her fingernails are filthy, though she does little else but sprawl about while her live-in is away surveying the tropical forest. Why this slattern bothers with a corset is anyone's guess, unless the director had her don it as a symbol of European antifeminism.
The post's other two women--as well as the jungle-trekking male protagonist--look like they stepped out of a band box in comparison. Of course, one of the females wears her dead husband's underwear, and the other does nasty things with her former ward. But what can one expect of uncivilized Europeans? Well, to answer that--drunkenness, prostitution, theft, battery, murder, and suicide.
It's difficult to discern whether the acting is good in this movie because the actors do little besides listlessly plodding or lolling about. The sex scenes are wooden, abortive, and/or downright disgusting. Obviously, the audience is meant to feel no sympathy for the main characters. They are, after all, Europeans.