Entre las piernas  (1999) from Tuna

Entre las piernas (1999), or Between Your Legs, is a Spanish thriller staring Victoria Abril, Javier Bardem and Carmelo Gómez.

As the film opens, a man returns home from a business trip, gives his daughter a stuffed animal, and the baby sitter puts her to bed. Then the baby sitter changes clothes in full view of him, he ravishes her, and the daughter wakes up and starts hitting him with a sharp object. Cut to a therapy session led by him for sex addicts. It is there that we meet some of the main characters.

NUDITY REPORT

Cristina Brondo as the baby sitter shows breasts in a lengthy scene, Victoria Abril shows a breast through a sheer bra, and some unknown actresses show breasts in some secret tapes that the screenwriter's partner is selling.

Bardem is a successful screen writer, who is addicted to phone sex. Abril is the wife of a police detective, who takes her dog for a walk in the park every morning, and screws a random stranger. What better place for two compatible sex adducts to meet than a sexaholics anonymous meeting? They leave together, and begin what will blossom into a relationship. Meanwhile, Bardem discovers that tapes of his phone sex are for sale all over the city, and a body is discovered in the trunk of a car. Guess whose husband is assigned to investigate the death? The victim was a wannabe screen writer, who, of course, knew Bardem.

Gómez catches on that his wife is seeing Bardem, and also suspects him of the murder. Meanwhile, we learn that the victim was involved in the tapes, and that Bardem's partner was selling them. The partner also just happened to be shacked up with Bardem's ex-wife. Then there is a plot element that I couldn't make fit anywhere. One of Gómez's colleagues, whose wife left him for another man, tried to get back together with her after the two were in a car crash where he died and she lost a foot. She rejects him, so he shoots her, then kills herself.

Currently available only on region 2 DVD

While I have become a huge fan of Spanish cinema, which is clearly world class, I do not get Spanish thrillers, and this is no exception. 

The Critics Vote

  • no major English-language reviews online

The People Vote ...

IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, C. This is well photographed, but did not seem very thrilling to me, which is a major flaw in a thriller.

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