SCORE
Radley Metzger's erotic Mediterranean romp, adapted from an off-Broadway play, is a five-character drama of mind games and sex games. A swinging married couple with an ongoing rivalry sets their sights on a naive young couple who have moved into their darling little Mediterranean town (the village of Leisure, in the land of Play, deep within the Erogenous Zone, according to the narrator, though in reality shot in Zagreb, Yugoslavia). The newlyweds are having troubles of their own, making them easy marks for the hedonistic swingers, but Metzger flips the tale from craven exploitation to sexual healing. As the beautiful young couple succumbs to seduction (and not necessarily the couplings you would expect), their inhibitions are unlocked and their guilt overcome with pleasure. Neither exploitative nor judgmental, Metzger's elegant soft-core erotica combines a playful cinematic style with a cool European sensibility, set against a handsome landscape of old-world architecture and chic modern settings. This exploration of bisexual seduction is his most explicit offering (sans his brief sojourn into the adult film industry), yet for  all of its nudity, which is surprisingly balanced between male and female scenes, it remains a smart, witty, sweet little erotic fairy tale in which even selfish intentions lead to happy endings.--Sean Axmaker