Desire Review: Netflix’s newest erotic thriller, Deseo, blends forbidden romance and family drama with psychological suspense, as a woman finds her peaceful life turned upside down when her daughter’s swim coach awakens a deep obsession and desire inside her. The film, among many streaming on Netflix these days, tries to bring forth a taboo romance to incite extreme reactions from viewers by making it as disturbing as possible. However, in a rather odd twist, the film doesn’t have much to say, just a long runtime full of silences and awkward interactions.
While at first glance the premise seems like a promising character study wrapped in a suspense thriller, it’s just another guilty-pleasure romance that doesn’t deliver on that front for the most part either. The film stars Ludwika Paleta, José María Yazpik, Óscar Casas, Leonardo Ortizgris, Matías Coronado, and Pili Pascual in lead roles and is directed by Teresa Simone.
Desire Review
A Forbidden Romance That Starts Strong
The movie starts with a showcase of Lucero’s carefully constructed life, wherein her marriage seems to be deteriorating due to a lack of intimacy. From the jump, it’s clear that the film wants to construct this ruse, which gives her an easy in into the affair with her daughter’s swim coach and, from there, things just get somewhat complex. There is, of course, Viviana’s crush on him and Fernando’s suspicion regarding his wife’s transgressions.
The setup of the film is obvious but quite good, but nothing truly happens for most of the runtime until things get from bad to worse towards the end and the truth and consequences come tumbling out.
Good Performances Anchor the Film
The performances across the board are quite great and are one of the reasons why you believe the craziness that takes place on screen. Ludwika Paleta, especially, is a great protagonist who finds herself stuck between a rock and a hard place thanks to her own actions. Her difficult situation is interesting to watch, especially her conversations with Fernando. There’s an undertone of maturity in the entire thing that makes you want to see where the story is going. After 20 years of marriage, the story highlights the troubles that couples face and how not to overcome them!
Unfortunately, the other characters are quite underdeveloped and don’t seem to have much of a role in the story other than pushing Lucero’s issues forward.
Suspense Gives Way to Familiar Melodrama
The entire film hinges on trying to get viewers to click for either the raunchy scenes or the melodrama. Unfortunately for Desire, the film has very few thrills and even less melodrama. It’s a string of scenes that seem to be haphazardly strung together to give the illusion of a thriller. But once you reach the end, it becomes painfully obvious that the movie hardly has anything to offer. There’s an affair and a murder, but between these two, there’s not a lot of discussion surrounding what or why.
There also seems to be a B Plot about the young son, but it’s not explored well either. The raunchy scenes aren’t also that well done, and while it’s quite NSFW, you’d think that a movie about forbidden sexual desires would be more passionate.
That’s one of the things that the movie grossly misses out on – there’s no passion between the characters, as a result of which viewers won’t be able to believe Lucero’s affair with Matias. It’s difficult to see why she would suddenly start this odd relationship out of thin air; a successful lawyer like her surely knows how to control her desires. Especially with the consequences staring at her through another character’s actions, it’s bizarre to watch the film that makes you feel nothing!
Stylish Direction Can’t Hide a Thin Script
As a Netflix film, the production quality is great, and it looks quite stylish. However, most of the scenes are oddly too dark, and it’s hard to watch. The problem, however, is that the script doesn’t have anything to offer. Despite it telling us that something shocking is coming for us, there’s nothing to show for it. It does rely on familiar erotic-thriller tropes, but doesn’t even deliver on that. I cannot emphasise enough that there’s nothing truly happening in the film other than a string of scenes loosely strung together. At the end of the runtime, viewers will be left questioning the point of everything.
The film tries to escalate the scandal and make the identity of the murderers the most shocking thing, but the path leading to it is so uneventful that it’s difficult to get to the end.
Final Verdict
Desire is a terrible movie whose biggest flaw is a lack of depth and chemistry between the characters. The film has nothing that makes it stand out, or even mildly entertaining. It simply exists.
Watch Desire movie on Netflix. What are your thoughts on the film? Let us know in the comments below!
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