Well. this movie was definitely a lot raunchier than I expected! I made the mistake of not reading the rating on the cover and sitting down to watch this with my fifteen year old sister. The opening scene is of course Heather Graham going madly `at it’ with boobies flying all over the place. I promptly commanded my sister to cover her eyes and muted the volume. This impacted somewhat on my viewing experience as there were quite a few occasions throughout the film where I was doing this. Censorship and all, I still managed to enjoy this DVD.
The story is of Alice, and American living in London, in a loveless relationship with a man who seems to give her no satisfaction personally, and sexually. Alice seems to have settled for the `white picket fence’ life she is living until one morning she locks eyes with a man at a crosswalk on the way to work. After meeting Adam again, she goes home with him and within a matter of a few days she leaves her boyfriend and marries the stranger, Adam. Alice spends the remainder of the film trying to figure out Adam’s past and to find out who the man she married is.
After watching for a while I asked myself, what sane person would actually marry someone they didn’t know, especially someone who seemed to be as volatile as Adam’s character? The movie seemed to be filled with Heather taking her clothes off at every request and succumbing to Adam’s bizarre lovemaking requests with no question. The sex scenes seemed trite - attempting to be shocking and challenging, they ended up looking silly in the context of the hip style of this movie. Graham and Fiennes seem to be trying their hardest in this flick, but I think the direction was just a bit weak and it just didn’t cut it for me. I found myself questioning her stupidity and his madness through the entire sitting, and though this may have been an intentional technique to feed suspense, it ended up being annoying - and even funny at some points.
In one scene Adam straps Alice, naked; to the kitchen TABLE while he has an episode about her lack of trust (all I could think was Derr!!). The whole time Alice lies there looking more bored than anything! At the climax of the film (sorry, I couldn’t help myself) we find out what all the mystery was about - and when it was supposed to be horrible and shocking it ended up being the thing that I most expected, and therefore last expected to be the actual end.
Overall I thought this movie wasn’t too bad - I think the camp factor made it slightly more watchable. Heather and Joseph are pretty easy on the eyes; this and the fact that they are decent actors made up for the holes in the storyline.

THE EXTRAS

Cast and Crew Interviews
Interviews with Cast members Heather Graham, Joseph Fiennes, Natascha McElhone, Ulrich Thomson and Director Chen Kaige.
Scene Selections
Featurette
A promotional style piece on the film, containing clips of the film and interviews with cast and crew explaining the film and its character’s story.
Behind the Scenes
A candid look behind the scenes of Killing Me Softly, without commentary which makes for quite interesting viewing
Trailers
The original theatrical trailer

CONCLUSION

The story is of Alice, and American living in London, in a loveless relationship with a man who seems to give her no satisfaction personally, and sexually. Alice seems to have settled for the `white picket fence’ life she is living until one morning she locks eyes with a man at a crosswalk on the way to work. After meeting Adam again, she goes home with him and within a matter of a few days she leaves her boyfriend and marries the stranger, Adam. Alice spends the remainder of the film trying to figure out Adam’s past and to find out who the man she married is.