Did I miss something or is there no story ?

Rating: 1/10 (8 December 2016)

Bill Harford is a young doctor, who ventures out of his luxurious apartment on the Park, into the decrepit neighborhood,after his beautiful wife Alice, admitted to him she fantasizes to cheat him with another man. His quest for sexual encounters leads him to a troubling experience that could cost him more than his vertu.
At the beginning I didn't think much about this movie, I figured that Alice would be the focus of the movie as she fantasizes about having sex with another man. So naturally I was expecting her to initiate herself and her husband to new sexual experiences. Instead she's one-dimensional and plays an uninteresting person with silly lines. The movie lingers on and on, Harford wanders in the streets and then decides to hook up with a prostitute at her apartment until his wife calls him. Then he decides to leave and check into the club where an old college friend ( Nick Nightingale ) plays, which of course was 25 yards away. So basically Nick reveals that he is hired to play blind-folded at a very private party and commits the rookie mistake to give him the address of the party. It's a costumed party, and Harford manages to buy late-night a costume and get there a little late with a cloak and a mask.
There, he is welcomed by a fleet of staff, in front of a grandiose house- all of them are men by the way. He discovers it's an orgie and we ask ourselves: why and what exactly does Kubrick want to share to us about this exaggerated baroque orgie ? Maybe that the bourgeois have the means to create their sexual opera ? The struggle of hedonism ? The consequences of desire ? The inanity of passions ? The quest for liberties over a conquest ?
There is nothing spectacular about even the orgie - believe it or not there are already clubs who provide these kinds of sexual orientations. Kubrick clearly committed a mistake of ignorance. Harford does not participate in any activities, he has been spotted as an intruder. A hooker urges him to leave the party before he can be identified. A whole twisted staged plot encircles Harford who is threatened to stay shut. We then ask ourselves again: what is the big deal about this orgie ? Is this party worth the secrecy of identity ?
But after that the movie fails to develop the climax. Harford reads in the newspaper about a prostitute who overdosed early in the morning. He is convinced that he is being the center of a hit ? That's not a sufficient intrigue.
The movie then ends in a confrontation between Victor, an older friend of Bill. Victor was there that night at the house. The outcome is greatly disappointing. All evolves around the secrecy of this orgie, the extreme measures that have been taken to protect the fetichism of the wealthiest corny men in New York. Yes, rich men like to hire escorts for their kinky fantasies, it is not tabou, it is everyday in the newspapers after another scandal surfaces.
It's all shortcuts, incoherences. How does a pianist who just moved in N.Y., gets contacted to play at this orgie ? How did he get contacted in the first place ? How many times has he been there ? Why would an outsider recommend a pianist to people who have to means to hire 30 staff employees ? Are you telling me they can't hire themselves a pianist ?
The quest for sexual identity seems to be the subject of the movie but really the characters mistake themselves on their own identity. Since they do not know what they want, they convince themselves they are seeking sexual experiences, in order to have a purpose. All seem to enjoy the idea of fantasizing and playing, and that is why Bill follows a hooker to her place (which he never touches) and amuses on adultery.
For a movie that apparently wants to shock or excite, it massively fails.