To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this flick and I wonder if I actually saw it in the movie theater when it was released. I remember it very well though, back then, it did receive some pretty good reviews and it would provide a (deserved) breakthrough for Maggie Gyllenhaal. In fact, I have just noticed that it would be the first leading part for Gyllenhaal but also her last one as she has been only playing supporting parts during the following decade. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, it is basically a rather straightforward romantic-comedy with an interesting edge. Indeed, it deals a with a couple who are into SM and, for once, this SM relationship was described as being healthy which was something apparently never ever displayed before in a fairly mainstream picture. Anyway, even though I admired the whole thing and even though I thought it was quite enjoyable, at the end of the day, since it was dealing with a rather taboo subject, they decided to handle it only fairly lightly as a comedy to make it easier to swallow for the mainstream audience. To conclude, even though it might not be a masterpiece, it was still a really original and well made comedy and it is definitely worth a look.
7/10