Original Sin

Eva (Maia Nikiphoroff) is a desperate housewife. Recently married, she has left her native Paraguay to be with new husband Adrian (Cesar Di Bello) in Spain, but now he won't let her touch him. He's uptight, even frigid, focused entirely on his ambitions at work and sparing not a thought for her experience. Resentful of the tidy, lonely elegance of the upper middle class world in which she has found herself, she has rebelled by buying a sexually outré piece of art for the house, but when the painter himself arrives to deliver it, Eva's desires can be kept in check no longer. By the time Adrian returns, they are naked and entangled, but it's what happens afterwards that gives the film its curious energy.

How is a man discovering such a scene supposed to behave? Anger isn't a natural impulse for Adrian - it's stifled like all of his passions - and like many people in shocking situations, he flounders, hopelessly unsure of himself. Perhaps it's an opportunity for him to confront the uncertainty he has felt all along. Where he is skilled, however, is in the art of passive aggression. Inviting Luis (Alejandro Torres Menchaca), the painter, to stay for lunch gives him a chance to sulk and make cutting remarks like a pro. Luis, meanwhile, is struck by how little sympathy there seems to be between husband and wife, and embarks on some impromptu marriage guidance counselling. Eva, trying to steer a course around the two of them and dreading the impending arrival of her in-laws, tries to figure out exactly what it is that she does want as the situation slides out of control.

There's an unexpected tenderness at the heart of this snappy little comedy that gives it more than just superficial charm. It plays with the idea of original sin not as sex but as self-awareness. Adrian has been raised to follow social conventions - and be hypocritical where it offers an advantage - without ever thinking about it, and it's his gradual awakening that gradually turns him from Eva's adversary into her co-conspirator - perhaps giving the two of them a future together in the process.

Attractively shot, witty and warm-hearted, Original Sin is knowingly absurd in place and sometimes risks being twee, but writer/director Jean Lee has fun taking a situation that we've seen played out in the same way in decades' worth of comedies and doing something different with it. At its best, it has the joyous irreverence of an Orton play; it has some of the same flaws too, but it's always easy to like.