The Loss Of Sexual Innocence

Is The Loss of Sexual Innocence, director Mike Figgis' experimental non-linear tone poem, pretentious? Of course it is--you've got to have a streak of pretentiousness to break free from conventional film structure and make something so distinct it's occasionally confounding. The better question is whether it's nothing but pretentious, which will be an eye-of-the-beholder proposition. Some will see little more than gratuitous iconoclastic noodling in this collection of episodes centered around a character named Nic at various stages of his life; others will find a visually gripping if emotionally distant experience in this thematically connected collection of cinematic short stories. With its classical score and occasionally breathtaking images, the film also sports moments of flat-out weirdness, and a Garden of Eden sub-plot that alternates between an unblinking staredown with innocence personified and an irritating Calvin Klein ad. Clearly, Figgis wants to use cinema the way only cinema can be used, and without question he does so--the extent to which this mixed bag succeeds, however, is a matter of extremely subjective opinion. Optional. (S. Renshaw)