Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

The first must-see film of the year.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Blistering performances.

Brian De Palma is known primarily for his potboiler thrillers. "Passion" is a departure into a more arty, European style in this remake of a French film. The results are uneven, yet very watchable.The most extreme "arty" moment in the film comes at a crucial time when a murder is being committed. Here, the filmmaker juxtaposes scenes from a ballet performance of "The Afternoon of a Faun," based on Claude Debussy's music, with the crime as it is unfolding on a split scene. The overall effect was amateurish and lost the suspenseful build-up to the murder.Another flaw was the clumsy pattern of a character waking up in the middle of a nightmare, which confused the audience as to what was real and what was the dream. The over-reliance on this technique led to a messy narrative structure. What are we to believe at the end? Was the mysterious woman appearing at the funeral Clarissa, the twin sister of Christine? Did Dani actually send the message to the inspector, or was that part of Isabelle's dream like the strangulation of Isabelle by the Clarissa? Setting aside the cavernous plot holes, the character developments were good, as we follow the bitter "cat fight" among Christine, Isabelle, and Dani. Like poor Dirk, we as the viewers follow the action almost in a stupor because it is so bewildering. As the various characters experience their meltdowns in the rivalry at work and in the boudoir, it is nearly impossible to conclude which one of the three women in the most devious.An especially revealing detail is apparent in the name of the corporation in which the three women work: International Image. All three of the women seem preoccupied with the notion of "image," which is their line of work. A central metaphor in the film is the mask that is favorite device for Christine in a personal life that is a variation on "Fifty Shades of Grey." But when the masks slips, each character becomes vulnerable. At that moment, Christine, Isabelle, Dani become extremely dangerous to anyone who crosses their paths.

The loose story to this one centres on a power struggle between an advertising executive and her assistant. It begins with the boss taking credit for her aide's popular advertising idea and events escalate from there until things become deadly.There is no doubt that the story-line in this film lacks a bit of direction, with the mystery/thriller plot thread coming out of nowhere in a film which had been a sort of melodrama up to that point. But to be honest I am quite forgiving of this because as far as I am concerned this is a Brian De Palma movie that unashamedly sources his thrillers of old and, as such, is a wilfully artificial story propped up with lots of cinematic style. I always enjoy De Palma in full-on style-over-substance mode and, even better, he is that rare director who actively admits that that is his prime objective. I think we get a little too much 'substance' and not enough style in our modern movies, so I for one am always up for a bit of De Palma action. In this one there is beautiful cinematography from the start with the piece de resistance being an extended split-screen sequence where we see events unfold at a ballet performance while sinister events play out at the home of one of the lead characters. And the ending sequence truly is trademark De Palma - camp, erotic, violent and completely over-the-top. It's all great fun basically. The two lead actresses Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace are commendably game throughout and ultimately, I found this stylized, hyper-real thriller rather a lot of fun to be perfectly honest.

I'm not a huge fan of Brian DePalma's, I'll say that up front.This film didn't make me one either.Naomi Rapace of Girl in the Drago Tattoo fame stars with Rachel McAdams in a German-French production. Evidently DePalma isn't in with the big studios any longer.The plot concerns an executive, Christine (McAdams) who takes credit for an idea her assistant Isabelle (Rapace) had. When the client wants some improvements, Christine is out of the office. Isabelle doesn't agree with the proposed changes and takes her idea back, provoking Christine's fury.Christine sets out to humiliate Isabelle, and does a good job of it. Isabelle is driven to popping pills, to the extent that she is in a fog. Enter murder.There are some stunning sequences in this film, especially the ballet part. The movie has a lot of style to it.It misses the boat in the casting of Rachel McAdams. I suppose this was done to get funding overseas; she's not the world's biggest name, but she is a name. She is very wrong for the role of Christine, a hard-edged, sexually kinky, manipulative woman. She was 34 when she made this film, but she plays younger, too young for her job; and the needed edginess in her is cute.Rapace is very good, as one would expect. Christine should appear to be the stronger but because of Rapace's presence, she doesn't.I actually liked this story, and I look forward to seeing the French version, which I imagine is better cast and more atmospheric. De Palma alas is too cold a director for me.

Why the heck did they waste money on this horrible movie?! Yeah sure, it's added in a lot of sex scene's and thriller action but that's not enough to make a proper movie! I really thought it was gonna be good because I do like crime drama with romance films but, this is definitely a let down! The background such as the house, looks so much like it's meant to be for a cleaning advertisement, not for a thriller crime movie. The actors looked like they weren't confident enough to be involved in the film! I say, they all hated just being in this crappy film.I can't talk anymore, this movie is terrible!