Claudio Carvalho
In Australia, the executive Kate (Linda Cropper) sees a young woman undressing her stolen dress in the swimming pool of a club, and regardless of the contrary opinion of her mate Phil (Jeff Truman), she decides to steal it back. Later her teenager son Matt (Wade Osborne) is approached by the smalltime thief Rachel (Anna Lise Phillips), the woman who stole the dress, and after spending some leisure time with her, they go to his middle class house. Sooner, Rachel's friend Nick (Scott Major) joins them, and Nick ties Matt to his mother's bed while Rachel masturbates him and cleans him with his mother's dress. The abused boy has a trauma, and his mother seeks revenge against Rachel, who returns with her friends, in escalating forms of retaliation until a tragic conclusion.The beginning of "Envy" is promising and quite original, notwithstanding being confused. I saw the first two or three chapters of the DVD twice to understand the intriguing situation. Unfortunately, after the abduction of Rachel by Kate in the mall, it seems that the director became lost in the development of the story. It does not make any sense and is completely absurd for me that an intelligent executive, even affected by an emotional problem, decides to send a sociopath back to her home to give the sexual initiation to her traumatized son. The conclusion, with the death of Matt, is appropriate and shows that violence may generate increased payback, and the price of her dress in the end was the life of her beloved son. The actress Anna Lise Phillips has a great performance and makes the movie worth.My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Inveja Fatal" ("Fatal Envy")
ksaelagnulraon
This is NOT just another ordinary thriller - it's darker, has more behind the scenes, is less polished, has more substance. However, the only way the story could succeed was with some unbelievably stupid plot developments: it seems the script writers have almost totally ignored the possibility of police and/or psychiatric involvement...surely after your teenaged son has been raped, you'd get some sort of professional help!! The film gets sillier and sillier as the mother goes through a mid-life crisis (complete with alcohol and a different hair-colour) and becomes a vigilante seeking revenge for her family... Okay, what WAS done was done well, but it's actually a pretty bad script. Rating: 6/10.
jtur88
This was a decent watch, but nothing that I would particularly recommend to anyone. Acting performances were generally quite good, and the story certainly off-beat enough to keep one wondering where it would go. For something a little bit different, give it a try---better than the same-old same-old.
paledude
***Possible spoilers***I enjoyed this movie despite its uneven story development. The driving event of the film was the son's "molestation", which I found a little tame. It took me a while to figure out that the youngster wasn't in fact in his early twenties. Perhaps a younger-looking actor would have served better. Possibly, the hooligans could have been a little more violent or nasty. Hard to imagine that this rather tame event could have led to the total destruction of the family. The mother's ambivalent motivation was well-depicted, although I think more milage could have been gotten from it. The end of the movie comes very quickly and I was left with lots of questions about exactly what happened and why. For once, a movie that could have been 30 minutes longer. Overall, an entertaining movie, though.
AD
