wes-connors After what seems like a gratuitous gay sex scene (in reality, it's the climax of a movie seen by the stars of this movie), writer/director Pedro Almodóvar gets down to business… Promiscuous and successful director Eusebio Poncela (as Pablo Quintero) bids young lover Miguel Molina (as Juan Bermúdez) a fond farewell. Mr. Molina must leave Madrid, for the coast; he begs off about duties, but really wants Mr. Poncela to clean up his act. This leaves an opening for likewise handsome young Antonio Banderas (as Antonio Benitez), who was turned on by the film's sexy cinematic beginning, and has been fantasizing about being mounted by Poncela. Mr. Banderas wants plugging with a passion.After getting himself plucked by Poncela, Banderas begins displaying psychotic, stalker-like behavior. Banderas professes undying love for Poncela, who continues to moon over Molina. Their increasingly dangerous love triangle is sidestepped with attention given to Poncela's transsexual sister and confidante Carmen Maura (as Tina), a single mom. The gay stalker story in "Law of Desire" was likely more intriguing in decades past - but, Mr. Almodóvar's direction and the extraordinary performances hold up very well.******* La ley del deseo (2/7/87) Pedro Almodóvar ~ Eusebio Poncela, Antonio Banderas, Carmen Maura, Miguel Molina

Spikeopath I once read that Pedro Almodovar wanted to reach out his audience via their hearts, their minds and their genitals, with this, my first experience with the director, he most certainly sticks to his aims. The film opens with a young man masturbating upon the orders of his director, from here on in the tone is set for what is, a bonkers, yet highly entertaining picture.The plot revolves around the sexual adventures of gay director Pablo Quintero and his transsexual sister, Tina, her struggle with men and the duty of bringing up a young daughter who she fathered when she was a he!, still with me?. Into their lives comes Antonio Benitez, he's sexually fascinated with Pablo but gets his nose put out of joint upon learning of Pablo's love of another guy called Juan, things are about to get darkly unnerving.Law Of Desire is stylish and full of tricky eccentricities, it's also very much in your face with its blatant urge to be seedy, however it's backed up by wonderful performances from Antoino Banderas {Benitez}, Carmen Maura {Tina} and Eusebio Poncela {Pablo}, whilst it's director is clearly a talent that was, at this time in his life, making films with attitude and a devil may care spirit. 7/10

tdsergito The story is simply about a love affair intruded upon by a pathologically jealous third party. If somebody in this day and age feels that sexual orientation destroys a career in film, the person who believes such stuff clearly doesn't get out much.I liked the film. I do not ask much of a film, other than it be somehow entertaining, so I cannot pretend to any expertise as a critic. I suspect that many critics simply look for new ways to say they liked or did not like any work they view. If I were not trying to fill ten lines of space, I would stop with the clear and brief comment that I liked the film.In any event, for those who are not of a Victorian mindset and who realize that gay love affairs are no more pathological than any other love affairs, I recommend this movie.The film is not likely to be playing at local theaters, and I am finding it difficult to locate a video or DVD of the movie in Mexico; however, it is worth it to me to see the film again.

Bloom6000 I first saw snippets of this film ages ago and finally saw the whole film. Prior to watching this film, I've read countless hyped-up, mixed reviews over it. People say it's a great comedy, others say it's a kinky, perverted piece of work. I guess when this film was released in 1986, people didn't know what to make of it. And now after seeing this film, I don't blame them.I watched this film originally expecting a thriller. It has some thriller elements in it, especially towards the end, but the main plot - a gay film director pursued by a psychopath - is often overshadowed by the quite inappropriate story of the director's "sister" and her struggle to raise an ex-lover's daughter.You can see here a young Antonio Banderas as the 'baddie' of this film. Apparantely this was the first film where Antonio performs very hot sex scenes with another male actor.So is the film good? Yes... only if you're a fan of any of the cast, or of the director, or of dark kinky Spainish films in general. What are the flaws?... well there aren't any that I can pick out. It's a decent film with decent directing. Nothing to get too excited over.Perfect to watch on a quiet Saturday night.