'Passages' is frank in depictions of sex, but it's the complex characters you'll remember

There are a couple of lines of dialogue early in “Passages” that are key to the character of its protagonist, Tomas.

“I had sex with a woman,” he says. “Can I tell you about it, please?”

Not so remarkable, perhaps, especially in a movie — except that Tomas (Franz Rogowski) says it to his husband, Martin (Ben Whishaw) after not coming home the night before.

Tomas, in director and co-writer Ira Sachs’ film, is a kind of monster, really. He crashes through life with little regard for those around him, including those he loves, and those who love him. It doesn’t seem to be fully intentional — part of that has to do with Rogowski’s performance, which somehow manages to make you not want to stop watching after the umpteenth time he hurts someone.

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Rogowski's Tomas is a unique character

Or maybe you just want to see who he’ll hurt next, and how. Either way, he is a unique creation, impossible to root for yet, with enough almost boyish wonder at his own appetites, impossible to ignore.

We first meet him on the set of a film he is directing in Paris, where he cajoles an actor to walk downstairs properly, which is to say the way Tomas wants him to. Then he shows him. No detail escapes him. He's furious when he sees that the extras’ wine glasses are empty.

Next, we’re at the wrap party, where Martin tells Tomas he doesn’t want to dance and has to go home. Tomas ends up dancing with Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos), and they immediately connect. They go home together and have sex — which is what Tomas wants to talk to Martin about.

Not surprisingly, Martin isn’t interested in being Tomas’ audience. He’s hurt, but not broken.

Until Tomas packs up and moves in with Agathe.

What is the movie 'Passages' about?

Tomas’ selfishness knows no bounds. He’s like a three-year-old who just wants everything he sees. When he learns, by barging in, that Martin has begun a relationship with a writer, Amad (Erwan Kepoa Falé), he wants Martin back.

But he wants Agathe, too.

It is maddening, not just for the characters but for the audience. You want to grab him by the lapels, when he’s wearing lapels (not always) and shake some sense into him. And you definitely wish someone in the film would.

Sachs delights in our discomfort. When Tomas and Agathe have dinner with her parents, it is excruciating. They’re worried about stability for their daughter, understandably (though insistent in their inquiries). Tomas thinks it’s all pointless. He can say whatever they want to hear and it’s meaningless, he says. They’ll just have to trust him.

That could be a punch line, or a punch in the gut. Or both, maybe.

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Why is 'Passages' NC-17?

“Passages” has gotten a lot of attention because the Motion Picture Association slapped it with an NC-17 rating. Mubi, the film’s distributor, chose to release it in theaters unrated.

Certainly, there is nudity and there are sex scenes in the movie, both gay and straight, and they’re frankly depicted. They aren’t prurient, but central to the story.

If all this sounds like it adds up to a racy form of audience torture, it’s not. The direction and the performances prevent that. It’s really a rather quiet film, but Sachs keeps the energy high, the pace constantly moving (as evidenced by several shots of Tomas tooling around Paris on his bicycle).

'Passages' is a surprisingly quiet, agonizing and well-played film

Both Exarchopoulos and Whishaw effectively portray the inner conflict of still being attracted to someone even as you want to drop a piano on their head. (Whishaw is just an amazingly watchable actor, no matter what he’s in.)

But Rogowski carries the film, and it is quite the performance — one whose appeal is difficult to work out in your head, which makes it all the better.

'Passages' 4 stars

Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★

Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★

Director: Ira Sachs.

Cast: Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw, Adèle Exarchopoulos.

Rating: Not rated.

How to watch: In theaters Friday, Aug. 11.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'Passages' review: Forget the NC-17 rating and enjoy the performances