“You cannot walk away from love.” Original Sin is an erotic thriller with a convoluted plot and one-dimensional characters. The story follows a businessman who becomes obsessed with a woman who posed as his mail-order bride, but turned out to be an impostor with a mysterious and dangerous past. The film stars Antonio Banderas, Angelina Jolie, and Thomas Jane, but none of them have particularly good onscreen chemistry. Additionally, the storytelling is especially poor; though it tries to be clever, it’s unable to build much suspense or tension. Original Sin has a fair amount of mystery and intrigue, but it’s poorly executed and unsatisfying.

Guilty pleasure cinema done with style. Critics destroyed it. Audiences were more forgiving. And honestly both sides have a point. The script is overwrought, the dialogue sometimes lands in unintentional comedy territory, and the plotting is messy. But Jolie in this film is something else entirely - dangerous, magnetic, completely in control of every room she walks into. She makes even the bad lines feel like weapons. The chemistry between the two leads is real enough to carry you through the weaker parts. It's melodramatic, yes. But it knows it is.

I have a feeling this movie didn't age well. This might've worked 20 years ago, but watching it today it just looked cheap, the story felt like one I'd seen several times before, even the actors who have done really well in other movies seemed to be giving some phoned in performances, so overall it was hard to get into. I found it difficult just wanting to pay attention to it.