Critics Are Outraged Over the Gratuitous Nudity in Natalie Dormer and Emily Ratajkowski's New Movie
The plot to Natalie Dormer's new movie, which she also co-wrote, involves a blind pianist named Sofia (Dormer), who gets wrapped up in a murder mystery after the death of her neighbor, Veronique (Emily Ratajkowski). And while that description sounds like a normal-enough premise for a Hollywood thriller, In Darkness-directed by Anthony Byrne-has become controversial among critics for what they're calling "gratuitous nudity."
"The film infuses its fairly generic storyline with some audacious stylistic devices, such as a sequence intercutting the ritual religious washing of Veronique’s corpse with images of Sofia showering, the latter complete with gratuitous nudity," The Hollywood Reporter wrote in its review. Another review from Rogerebert.com called the film "sadistic." Meanwhile, The Guardian called it a "trashy crime caper" that "finds fetish items everywhere."
But Dormer defend the movie, responding to the criticisms in an interview with The Guardian:
There has to be sexuality in the power play of a thriller. We have all got bodies, after all. In this film the sex scene, which for me was a love-making scene, is a metaphor for the way my character connects with the part played by [fellow Game of Thrones actor] Ed Skrein... Nakedness is a good equalizer and the shower scene also shows the tattoos on my character’s body and makes it clear she is not quite who you think.
If the lead characters do not have a clear connection, then it doesn’t work... And on screen it has to be a physical connection between two broken people. That was my intention. In a thriller the protagonists always have to join together somehow and sex represents that connection. If you are being true to the genre, you have to show this
The movie is currently available on Amazon and iTunes.
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