MBunge This is a strange little accident of a movie. Shelter Island is a complete and utter failure at being a thriller. Yet it still manages to generate a perverse watchability when it dwells on the sexual politics of lesbianism.Louise "Lou" Delamere (Ally Sheedy) is a champion pro golfer and motivational speaker living the good life in New York City with her live-in girlfriend Alex (Patsy Kensit). After Lou is attacked by a man in the street, seemingly at random, Alex decides to take her recovering lover out to their new weekend home on the resort community of Shelter Island. After a brief encounter with the cluelessly sleazy local sheriff (Chris Penn), Lou and Alex make it out to their gigantic house just as Alex's friend Carly (Mimi Langeland) finishes getting it ready for them. After a bad storm rolls in and knocks out the power, Lou and Alex find a battered stranger at their door. Lenny (Stephen Baldwin) claims to be a clammer caught up in the storm and becomes an overnight guest who greatly bothers Alex and forges an odd relationship with Lou. It's like a homoerotic vibe, but between a man and a gay woman. When morning comes, it's like the film suddenly remembers it's supposed to be a thriller and bad stuff happens and people are not who we thought they were, leading to an ending that labors mightily in the pursuit of clever but only succeeds in being labored.Judged as a thriller, Shelter Island is darn near a fiasco. For the first 60 minutes of the movie, there's virtually no tension or suspense or excitement of any kind. It's like some sort of constipated lesbian romance, and I don't mean a romance involving constipated lesbians. Then the violence and threat kick in out of nowhere, ushering in a horde of stupid and nonsensical crap that runs wild through the movie like Mongols after a turkey dinner. There's even a scene that absolutely defies explanation, like a magic trick gone horribly, horribly wrong.But since the film is only 82 minutes long, all that stuff, as bad as it is, goes by quickly enough that you can't really dwell on it. What you do notice is the interesting dynamic that the film develops, where Lou can't stand the feminine cattiness of Alex's friend Carly but is intrigued by the blunt masculinity of Lenny. Lou is a pro athlete and has a certain machismo. However, she lives in a world that doesn't engage her on that level and when she finds it in Lenny, she can't deny the appeal. Somewhere in the depths of this script is the outline of one of those overly serious indy movies about the fluid nature of modern relationships, bobbing its head above water every so often to cry for help.There's also some female nudity in Shelter Island, most of it done by body doubles. But someone impersonating someone else's naked body is still naked. Rest assured, though, when you see Stephen Baldwin's ass on screen, it's the real deal.I can't recommend a film that misfires so badly at what it's trying to do. Nevertheless, I kinda liked it. Take that for all it's worth.

Cristi_Ciopron The hypothesis: I was looking for a fair B erotic thriller,in the vein of 'Possessed by the Night'--a funny,nice pastime .In fact,this is the purest and simplest form of thriller:no "action" is involved,and the subject is the simplest possible—with few characters and relatively fast-paced—a group of people is isolated from the world, etc..Cape Fear is the hallmark of this sub-genre (save the eroticism's, of course,though there was a rich content of implicit eroticism there …).The facts:the movie has nothing of FO Ray's insane verve.Patsy shows almost nothing;though,she is extremely sexy in this film as well.The scene where her lover touches Patsy's 'passerine parts is the most erotic that this crap gets. The movie is very ugly looking. Everything is patently bad and insipid. The (let's call it …) 'script' offered the opportunity of showcasing Patsy as a sexual object,as an erotic toy;well,this does not happen.This director-wanna-be has absolutely no sense of the genre's interest; he had a humble task,and he failed. All the more frustrating as I missed a PA Miller movie that was shown on another TV channel meantime.

Stefan Pankov Okay fine to be honest it is TERRIBLE. Cheap story that you would expect a grade 4 to write better. basically what happens is: 2 Women (Lesbians) go to a island to have a little vacation. they 1 night find a man knocking at the door and he falls in. They keep him for around 2 days, 1 of the women find him to be unsafe. but shes actually the one who works with him. She hired him to kill the other woman to take her money. But he didn't manage she came back to the house to try and rescue the other woman (the evil) because she thought she was being attacked. She beats him up. Then the bad woman kills the one that was supposed to die. Okay that's basically what happened. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY OR TIME ON THIS.. NOT WORTH IT.

dmaslak Believe it or not this movie was not bad. Definitely a guy movie. It had the three S's of a good flick: sex, suspense and scenery(nude). It's a good flick to watch at bed time when you need something to fall asleep to. William Penn plays a great cop who's elevator doesn't quite go all the way to the top, if you know what I mean. Hats off to Kensit and Sheedy for playing a couple and not shying away from showing their love for each other, if you know what I mean. The plot takes a little twist so as a result interest level is kept at a minimum in addition to all the nice scenery. I wonder if this willingness to play girl on girl for Ally Sheedy is part of her comeback from nowhere that started back when she did girl on girl in Higher Art?