The Loss of Sexual Innocence

The Loss of Sexual Innocence (1999)

Genres - Drama  |   Sub-Genres - Coming-of-Age, Ensemble Film, Erotic Drama  |   Release Date - May 28, 1999 (USA)  |   Run Time - 106 min.  |   Countries - United Kingdom, United States  |   MPAA Rating - R
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Review by Lisa Kropiewnicki

Considering it took Mike Figgis 15 years to obtain financing for this structureless script, which he wrote several years before directing his more commercially (and critically) successful films Leaving Las Vegas (1995) and Internal Affairs (1990), The Loss of Sexual Innocence (1999) comes across more like an experimental student film than an "art film" from an Oscar-nominated screenwriter/director. Its montage of memories, dreamy sequences, and streams of consciousness are fictionalized slices of life from Figgis' own reminiscences and feelings, yet remain undeveloped and mean little to the audience or even to the title subject. With its low budget and seemingly rushed four-and-a-half-week shoot, this hallucinogenic trip is frustratingly dull. Even with its graphic nudity and adult situations, there is a distinct lack of sexual tension, eroticism, and loss of anything -- except time spent watching this film.