Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Darker Side Of Female Sexuality And The Aging Woman, January 11, 2007
Taking us places we've never been before is one of the excellent ways cinema tells artistic stories. HEADING SOUTH deserves much credit for this aspect.
Rarely (if ever) do we see the darker side of female sexuality, and this is explored in minute detail in the film. But the message doesn't stop there. We also see the up- and ultimate downside of Western culture on a society struggling with its own identity; in this case, Haiti.
Haiti is the poorest nation in this hemisphere, not to mention riddled with an AIDS epidemic and a militaristic government. This comes into stark contrast as we watch Brenda (Karen Young) exit a plane in Port au Prince and walk between the desperate homeless and the gun-toting military. She is quickly whisked away from this ugliness and into an idyllic beach resort by its owner, Frank (Guiteau Nestant). Here she meets up with two other "civilized" women vacationers, Ellen (Charlotte Rampling) and Sue (Louise Portal, who has only the slightest role in the flick). They strike up an interesting if antagonistic relationship, especially whenever they're around the lithe and beautiful Legba (Menothy Cesar), a male prostitute of sorts who "services" the ladies of the resort. Yet much more is going on (and has gone on).
Brenda (a white woman from the States) first met Legba years before and experienced her first orgasm with him ...when she was 45; and he was only fifteen. Because we're in Haiti, though, pedofilia doesn't apply. The laws tend to be lax in that aspect. Brenda explains her first sexual encounter with Legba in brutally interesting terms (using words such as "threw myself" and "animal"). We also witness Ellen's attraction to Legba, which also goes deep (no pun intended). Brenda is 55 years old and knows she's on the downside of her sexual identity with men her own age, so seeks out a distant yet physically fulfilling relationship with Legba, too. Trouble is, though, is that both Ellen and Brenda find themselves more than just physically attracted to Legba. Brenda has no qualms about her feelings, and all but plants herself in his lap whenever she can. But Ellen tries to be more aloof, feigning disinterest in anything beyond physical desire (aka lying to herself). Brenda can see that Ellen wants Legba just as badly as she, and so bitter sparks fly amongst them.
But in the midst of these two battling and somewhat selfish women is Legba himself. Born into poverty, he finds himself trapped between the old Haiti and the possibility of a new life with one of the women from the resort (note: Legba is black, in case you didn't realize that). But relationship ties with his mother and an old flame flicker in his mind, holding him back, and threatening his very existence at important crossroads in the story. He's also more outspoken than most of his other male counterparts at the resort, and tells the women exactly what he thinks ("You look old like that"). This endears him even more to the summer visitors.
Life in Haiti is often vicious and fleeting, and this is brought home to the viewer when we watch Legba being chased through Port au Prince by a gun-wielding madman after someone sees him escorting a white woman around the city (Brenda). Nothing good can come from a relationship with these infrequent guests unless he can get off the island. But can he? Is he willing to let go of his homeland and his family in order to just survive in a distant world?
Director Laurent Cantet gives us a very good character study while enveloping it in the political strife surrounding Haiti. But the film's pacing is exceptionally slow and male viewers may very well be turned off by the subject matter. Although female pedofilia does exist, it isn't nearly as rampant as the male version. And men may have a better sense of the separation between sex and love (this is a broad distinction, though, and may only hold true in a Mars Versus Venus sense).
Still, the story is interesting enough thanks to some great acting on the part of old-time sex symbol Charlotte Rampling (FAREWLL, MY LOVELY, 1975), and the first-time role of Menothy Cesar as the unforgettable Legba.
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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great,great movie! Must-see, February 15, 2007
This movie is most remarkable in much of its sublety, and it's interested how many amateur reviewers in online forums are scandalized by the idea that middle-aged, postmenopausal women would have sexual desires, and that they would be willing to pay to have them fufilled. Such a squeamish, sophomoric fixation gets in the way of appreciating the movie for the brilliant acting and provocative psychological insights into the film's three women who travel to Haiti in the late 1970s to have a fling, and yet, they are not so jaded and robbed of humanity that they exploit their Haitian companions heartlessly. If anything, they try to help them escape death at the hands of a cruel and indifferent dictatorship and its army of thugs. I suppose these squirming reviewers would prefer the women stayed home and took up a hobby such as knitting or pottery. Sorry, but the characters are more complex than that, and the movie doesn't resort to simplistic, heavyhanded commentary about "sexuality in aging women, male prostitution, and the impact of tourism on third world nations." After all, it is not intended to be a politically correct diatribe that is watered down for feminists. No, the characters are adults, their desires and frustrations are real, and this film is a must-see.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Privileged female tourists and young Haitian men -- unsettling and thought provoking, January 20, 2007
This 2005 award-winning Venice film festival entry is certainly intriguing. It's set in Haiti in the 1970s. There's political turmoil going on, but the three middle-aged female tourists don't see that. They're staying at a luxury hotel where they can freely have romantic encounters with young Haitian men.
There's a poignant opening scene at the airport, where a Haitian woman is begging a well-dressed Haitian gentleman to please take her 15-year old daughter because she knows that the girl will be victimized because of her youth and beauty. The Haitian gentleman, however, is not what he seems. Even though he appears well dressed and prosperous, he is just an employee of the hotel and is at the airport to greet an arriving guest. Later, the director of the film gives him a monologue in which he speaks directly into the camera. This technique is used for three white women guests as well. In this way we can see the contrasting points of view clearly. It makes the viewer step back from the action and adds more insight even though it seems to detract from the narrative.
One of the women is a 55-year old college professor who teaches French at a prestigious Boston university. She's been taking long vacations at this resort for the past six years and is outspoken about her relationship with an 18-year old Haitian young man. A second woman, a 48-year old from Georgia has been in love with this same young man for three years, ever since she and her former husband stayed at the resort and she seduced him when he was 15. She and the college professor compete for the young man's affections. Naturally, there are complications, especially since neither of them has any understanding about what the young man's life is really like, and how there is almost no other way for him to make a living. Later, we meet his real girlfriend who is now being kept by a powerful political leader.
There's poverty and fear in Haiti but the guests at the hotel are untouched. When an act of violence occurs, there is sadness and outrage of course. It is interesting to see how each of the women handle it.
I found the film interesting and a bit unsettling. The acting was good, the cinematography excellent, but I just couldn't care for any of the characters. The women all seemed selfish. The young man seemed to have made some bad choices. The hotel employee who still yearns for a life that is no more is more sympathetic but I didn't feel any real connection. This is a film that exposes some truths that I've never seen dealt with in a film before. For that alone, I recommend it.
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