The Chilean film In the Bed, despite the title, doesn’t take place entirely in the bed. Two strangers—the only two characters in the film—have sex there, but as they get to know each other, their conversations and romps move on to the floor, the bathroom, back to the bed, and so on. Room in Rome is a remake by Sex & Lucia writer/director Julio Medem, and if anything, the title is more accurate.
This is the kind of re-do that more remakes should attempt. It adheres to the same basic premise (two strangers meet, have a one night stand in a hotel room, then develop a post-coitus bond and continue to have increasingly more meaningful sex as dawn approaches), but rehauls the story from the ground up and flips the context so that the themes discussed are not redundant of the original.
Specifically, while the two strangers in In the Bed are heterosexual male and female Chileans, in Room in Rome it’s two females from two different cultures, in a foreign land. With just those seemingly slight detail changes, the two movies have to be radically different from one another, otherwise it wouldn’t make much sense.
Room in Rome wears the face of an erotically charged film about sexuality, but its sexual content is not only few, the text of its narrative rarely gets into the libido of its two characters. The only time the film confronts it directly is when Alba, the butch French cutie, confidently asks Natasha, the demure Russian stunner, “Are you ready for the best orgasm of your life?” before going down on her, only for Natasha to ask Alba to use a vibrator or a mini wine bottle instead. Slightly offended, Alba scoffs that she doesn’t like anything masculine to come between them. “But I like men, remember?” Natasha pleads. This is the perfect springboard for a dialogue on sexual compatibility, and kudos to Medem for even bringing it up, but the conflict dissipates as quickly as it enters. Before long, they’ve gotten over this difference and roll around in lesbian harmony, with talks of their pleasure—something that should be new and exciting for Natasha—giving way to more “serious” topics.
Mostly, they share their dark pasts; they get to know each other, exploring their desires in life and love, with one psychoanalyzing the other and bringing out intimate details. Even after they arrive in the room, it takes a few beats for Alba to persuade Natasha to have sex, and even then, Natasha’s nervousness leads to a false start where she leaves, relieved that nothing happens, then comes back again. This slow trickling of consummation is in direct contrast with In the Bed, which opens with the camera literally between sheets as a man and a woman are already in the middle of sex. Without the baggage of sexual exploration, those two characters are free to follow base desires first and learn names later.
That’s not to say that there’s no anonymous lust in gay one night stands, but the film chooses to portray one with the setup of one green prospect being guided into same-sex lust by a more experienced seducer. It’s honest and respectful in that it doesn’t reduce the situation into male fantasy, despite a male auteur behind it. In fact, it dismantles the scenario early when the two beauties decline the sexy Italian room service waiter’s offer for a threesome, and the man immediately respects their wishes and leaves them alone (worst porn ever?).
The reason it appears to be more overtly raunchy than it is at first glance is because Alba and Natasha spend most of the movie in the nude, because really, why would anyone put on clothes just to hang around in a hotel room? It’s often annoying when you see two sexual partners hanging out in private and they’re dressed as if they know there’s an audience. The two actresses, Elena Ayana and Natasha Yarovenko, seem more comfortable displaying skin than they are delivering Medem’s English script, which is a little too wordy and precious to be believable.
Medem commits to the concept of the entire movie taking place in one room, so his camera never leaves its confines. He cheats a little at the beginning and the end: the film opens with the camera lingering on the balcony, facing the streets below as Natasha is being invited to come upstairs by Alba. The camera glides to the hotel room door and waits for them to arrive—an impartial witness that records what happens, while the two argue through the course of the night whether or not what happens in Rome should stay in Rome.
"Room in Rome" is on sale February 22, 2011 and is not rated. Drama, Romance. Written and directed by Julio Medem. Starring Elena Anaya, Natasha Yarovenko.
