synopsis : wealthy cuban landowner luis ( banderas ) gets more than he bargained for when he sends away for an american bride .
not only does his new wife turn out to be the beautiful julia ( jolie ) , she also harbours a secret past of dubious merit .
soon , julia has absconded with both luis ' fortune and his heart , and as he pursues his wife through the cuban underworld , luis begins to realise that , for him , there is no turning back .
review :
given the absurdism of its would - be plot , it 's unlikely that " original sin " could have been turned into a reputable piece of filmmaking , regardless of writer , director or stars .
this is , at its heart , b - movie junk : a lurid melodrama which appeals to neither the brain nor the heart but to the nether regions .
that said , " original sin " could at least have become enjoyable junk had the filmmakers embraced its trashiness and indulged in it .
instead , cristofer seems to have mistaken this for a serious production , and directs it as such .
the result is a vapid , uninteresting morass of obvious crosses and double crosses , as likely to incite a yawn as a thrill .
consider the initial sex scene between banderas and jolie : brightly - lit and mostly filmed from above ,
it looks like an excerpt from an amateur soft porn show .
cristofer does n't even manage to capture the allure of cuba ; instead of portraying his setting as a steamy , sensuous island paradise , it appears bland and lifeless . at least banderas and jolie manage to inspire some interest ; there are hints at times that they want to have more fun with the script , but are n't being given the chance .
the same can not be said of jane , whose billy is nebbish and transparent .
also unwise is the jolie framing sequence , which practically gives away the film 's denouement .
its trashiness it looks like an excerpt from an amateur soft porn show this is , at its heart , b - movie junk a lurid melodrama the result is a vapid , uninteresting morass it appears bland and lifeless given the absurdism of its would - be plot