She’s either the love of his life… or the end of it.
When Maureen Doherty (Jacqueline Bisset) announces she is going to marry Oliver Vance (Stuart Wilson) immediately after her husband’s death, her son Scott (Adam Garcia) is certain there is more to this liaison than first appears. Mistrustful of Oliver, Scott is soon blinded by his own attraction to Kelly Vance (Alice Evans), Oliver’s daughter. Convinced his father’s death was not an accident, Scott, aided by Kelly, begins to investigate.
Bound by this common purpose, they quickly bond and fall in love. Before they can prove their suspicions, a series of events leads to a fatal explosion that kills both their parents. When Scott learns of Kelly’s deceptions, he begins to wonder if the finger of guilt is deliberately being directed at him and if he has put his trust in the wrong person. Is it possible that Kelly is behind all of this?
Film Review for Fascination
Sex has never been so dull. I rented “Fascination” for only two reasons – the plot looked interesting, and, more importantly, it appeared to have a lot of sex. Okay, I’m shallow, but I’m also a twenty-something male so I have an excuse.
Unfortunately, “Fascination” is one of those films that gets worse with every passing second, and you can actually notice its degradation as time goes on. The first fifteen or twenty minutes or so are pretty good as the characters are established and we start to see hints at an underlying plot to get the money, but suddenly everything starts to unravel.
Oh, what’s the movie about you ask? After a suspicious swimming accident that kills his father, a young man named Scott (Adam Garcia) and his mother (Jacqueline Bisset) inherit all his wealth. Okay, that’s cool. Then his mom shows up a week or two later with a man (Stuart Wilson) who she is soon to marry, and that’s not so cool. Scott immediately smells a gold-digger, but the plot may be even more complicated than that as the man’s daughter (Alice Evans) shows up and quickly seduces Scott. Is it true love, or are the father and daughter just trying to steal all their inheritance? So, like I said, the plot sounds interesting, and, if you add some sex and nudity into the mix it can’t be all bad, right? Wrong!
Everything, from the plot to the direction to the acting, gets incrementally work as time goes on. The acting is decent in the beginning, but by the end of the film all the actors involved are laughably bad, especially the two leads, Garcia and Evans. Part of their performances can be blamed on the screenplay, but only part.
The plot ends up being ridiculously stupid and uninteresting and the final scene of the film is downright terrible, but what really kills the film is the direction, which goes from mediocre to downright amateurish. Writer/director Klaus Menzel clearly was stoned when he made this film as he just randomly throws in dramatic music and even some slow motion shots without ever establishing any tension or mood.
Things get the worse during the intimate scenes between Garcia and Evans; they are some of the worst sex scenes I’ve ever seen. They look ridiculously fake and don’t even try to pretend an ounce of chemistry between the two actors exists. I almost fast forwarded through a couple of the so-called “steamy” scenes. So, in other words, “Fascination” is a disaster. The plot ends up being stupid and the sex scenes aren’t worth a nickel. Avoid this one at all costs.
Fascination (2005)
Directed by: Klaus Menzel
Starring: Jaime Bello, Jacqueline Bisset, Elia Enid Cadilla, Craig Cady, Vincent Castellanos, Adam Garcia, Stuart Wilson, Gary Davies, Alice Evans, Sterling Fitzgerald
Screenplay by: Klaus Menzel
Production Design by: Marc Greville-Masson
Cinematography byÇ Reinhart ‘Rayteam’ Peschke
Film Editing by: Toby Yates
Costume Design by: Susanna Puisto
Set Decoration by: Monica Monserrate
Art Direction by: Mayna Magruder
Music by: John Du Prez
MPAA Rating: R for strong sexuality.
Distributed by: Metro Goldwyn Mayer
Release Date: January 28, 2005
Visits: 106
