Irreversible

A woman (Monica Bellucci) is savagely raped and beaten and her boyfriend (Vincent Cassel) sets out to kill her attacker.

This film is almost impossible to watch--there's an extremely horrifying and VERY graphic murder in the first 20 minutes and the rape/beating goes on for at least 10 minutes. To make it even worse was that both of the actors are so good that it looks very realistic. I was basically crying my eyes out during the rape and considered leaving the theatre. Usually I can sit through anything but this was really sickening, disgusting and beyond belief. After that sequence the movie does lighten up--but the effect lingers on.

Also the story is told backwards--why? It serves no purpose that I can see. In something like "Memento" it worked--in this one it's just annoying.

This is a hard movie to rate--on one hand the acting was very good and the script interesting but there's very annoying camera-work at the beginning (the camera keeps spinning around and never focuses), loud, ugly sounds and there was no need for this film to be so graphic. Seriously--why shot a 10 minute rape scene in all its "glory"? What's the point other than to sicken the audience?

So I liked the actors and the plot and dialogue but didn't like the direction, camera-work, audio or the unrelenting violence.

Use your own judgment on viewing this.