Naked As We Came

I still can't make up my mind of what I think of the movie overall. I do like fucked up family dramas but then they have to be done well. The plot is decent but there is something missing in all of this. This measured, claustrophobic drama about a pair of siblings reuniting with their terminally ill mother moves at a very slow pace, which sometimes can be off-putting, but some wide-screen cinematography comes as a saving grace.

Elliot and Laura are running their family business in Manhattan and are visiting their mother whom they haven’t seen in a year and a half. They find out that she is dying of cancer. The mother Lilly admits that she wasn’t the best of mothers and the relationship strains between the three of them is very evident. She was more interested in her orchids than her children. She was married to a man who was a womanizer and interested in making a career in politics. Lilly lives in a huge estate now and unknown to the kids, Ted has been living with their mother as a combination of groundskeeper, caretaker and a friend of Lilly. But there is a secret and what is it? The film focusses on the kids and the mother trying to improve their relation. Despite Laura's fears and Lilly's delight, Elliot and Ted end up sleeping together on the first night itself. And their liaison sets off a chain of emotionally charged confrontations, with the grown children loudly expressing their resentment at Lily for having been a bad mother. It turns out that Ted is a writer and is staying there to get and write a story because Elliot's father was once a famous politician whose career nose dived when the story of his illegitimate son came out. Th ending I felt was random. The mother dies, sister gets back with her husband and Ted decides to stay with Elliot.

Lilly was excellent in her role as a troubled bad mother dying of cancer but I wish I could say the same about rest of the members. The 2 guys were gorgeous but the film was weighed down by their pretty much wooden acting. Elliot spends most time in the film staring in open space, which gets annoying after a while and Ted has this wooden expression which you will understand only after watching. Also his character is not clearly established. We really don't get to know the purpose behind him being there, why he is not happy with his bf and why does Lilly trust him so much. Thankfully Laura as the controlling sister was quite effective as well and even sings a brilliant song. The film was shot beautifully in a mansion with a nice green house area. The sex scene is done ok but I think it was just for the sake of doing it. There was no real need (not that I am complaining) . :)

There is nothing in “Naked As We Come” you haven’t seen before in a movie. (5.5/10)