Original Sin

Minus the two A-list stars, and with the addition of even more explicit sex han it already features, "Original Sin" could be one of those soft-core thrillers playing most late nights on pay-cable television.

However, despite the hoopla about the supposedly sizzling chemistry between stars Antonio Banderas and Angelina Jolie, "Original Sin" isn't nearly racy enough to qualify as a guilty pleasure — though its final third is so absurdly silly that it might inspire a few guffaws.

In fact, this good-looking but rather long-winded bore begs only one question — how desperate were Banderas and Jolie to take a project as clearly awful as this one is? (Even the studio, MGM, seems to realize how bad it is — the film's release was delayed for more than a year.)

The story is a clunky adaptation of the novel "Waltz into Darkness," by Cornell Woolrich (who also wrote the book on which Hitchcock's "Vertigo" is based), whose main character is Cuban coffee-plantation owner Louis Durand (Banderas).

Louis is a busy man — with little time for romance — which perhaps explains why he's basically mail-ordered a bride from America. However, when the woman, Julia Russel (Jolie), finally arrives, she's not the dowdy woman he expected. Instead, she's a desirable young woman who awakens a passion in Louis that he never expected. Consequently, he finds himself falling for his new bride.

As you can probably guess, "Julia" is not who she claims to be — information that Louis is horrified to learn from an American detective (Thomas Jane) hired by the sister of the real Julia. Soon she disappears with a bundle of his money.

But as the two men try to track down the mystery woman, Louis comes to the inescapable conclusion that he's still in love with her and wants her back, in spite of her lies and deceptions.

It's not hard to believe this mess came from writer/director Michael Cristofer, whose previous film was the unwatchable, chauvinistic "Body Shots." Here, he pays more attention to tricky camera work than crafting a compelling story line (he particularly seems to favor slo-mos and sweeping, 360-degree shots).

So while you have to pity Banderas and Jolie, you also have to credit them for keeping a straight face through this nonsense, especially the ludicrously unbelievable ending (as well as Jane's absurdly perverse performance, one of the very worst seen on the big screen this year).

"Original Sin" is rated R for male and female nudity, simulated sex (fairly explicit), violence (gunfire, as well as violence against women), scattered use of profanity and some crude sexual talk, and brief gore. Running time: 116 minutes.

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