I have watched Neve Campbell in a number of movies like the ‘Scream’ series, ‘ Wild Things’, ‘The Craft’, ‘Three to Tango’ but she never looked so serene and graceful as in this movie. When I sat down to watch this I never had the idea that it was so short. Like its supposedly 81 minutes long but seems even less than an hour. The movie begins with a nude Neve in the shower. This may seem to be an eye candy scene especially for guys but Neve has this unique ability which made one yearn more to see her face and expressions.
Vera Barrie (Neve Campbell) is sort of a 21st century ‘ La Belle Dame sans Merci’. A beautiful, capricious young woman living in New York. Its one of those strange movies with strange characters and we find her exploring the limits of her sexual and intellectual power. Her promiscuity strangely does not hit you when you find her picking men from the streets and having sex in her apartment. You will find yourself smiling with her and also sharing in her misery of having a vain boyfriend who hardly cares about her.
She embodies the eternal adventurous female who is never afraid to explore. In one of the most aesthetically shot scenes we have Vera ( Neve) getting intimate with a good-looking blonde girl. The girls are shielded from the direct view of audience by a semi transparent curtain. Vera has rich parents and her apartment is plush. A carefree rich girl walking into adulthood is all which we could have expected. The bathing scenes which occur more than once may symbolize her compunction. Her need for washing down all her promiscuity. Vera’s boyfriend, Ford (Frederick Weller), is a fast-talking scoundrel of a character prepared to do anything to make a fast buck Taking advantage of Vera’s promiscuity, Ford sees a chance to make big money when he meets an aging Italian media mogul, named Count Tommaso (Dominic Chianese).
Tomasso is enamored of Vera’s naive sexuality and intelligence. Ford’s idea to pimp Vera out to the Count for $100, 000, easy money backfires. Like Demi Moore in’ Indecent Proposal’, she agrees. But both men have gravely underestimated Vera, who has an agenda of her own. The hapless men unwittingly play right into her hands. The result is an unexpected twist of an ending. The character development in the first half of the film convinces one to believe the events that unfold at the end. The music for the film starts out with various hip-hop then changes to a equal mix of violin music and then to piano.
Now here comes the bad ones.
I believe the nude scene was absolutely unnecessary. May be Neve’s career needs some fresh oxygen because this is her very first. You will keep on wondering how can a girl with two doting parents and almost everything perfect can actually fall for a hustler and become promiscuous too. Was she fed up with the perfection in her life. What happens to the African professor? Why does Vera become so vindictive and self destructive.
The misleading title, ‘When Will I Be Loved’. Where did the protagonist yearn or search love? The short length of the movie which gives a feeling of incompleteness. Lack of compulsive acting. Sometimes the music becomes too loud. The movie is a mixture of’Indecent Proposal’, ‘Wild Things’ and ‘Cruel Intentions’ It could have done a lot but bursts even before it had attained its full size. However the director abstains from titilating sex scenes unlike ’Wild Things’.