Finding Bliss (4 Stars)

What's your first impression when you see the DVD cover pictured above? If you've never heard of the film before and know nothing about it? A sleazy sex comedy? "American Pie" on steroids? You wouldn't be completely wrong on either count. And so you'd give it a miss? Stop! Look who's in the film! Any film starring Leelee Sobieski has to be of the highest quality. I watched this film on the basis of her name alone. And I wasn't disappointed.

At heart this is a chick flick set against the background of the sordid underbelly of Los Angeles. Leelee Sobieski plays Jody Balaban, a film school student with big dreams. Jody is a virgin. Almost. While at film school she has her first and only sexual encounter, which ends up as a disaster. She finishes top of her class and decides to go to Hollywood to make it big as a screenwriter. Among other things she writes a film based on her own life to tell the message that you should wait till marriage to have sex. But like so many before her she finds out that a college degree is no guarantee of success, and she ends up doing part time jobs in L.A.

Until she finally gets her break. Or so she thinks. She's offered a job as a film editor at Grind Studios, and she's too naive to realise it's a pornography company till she gets there. Though disgusted by the film content she does excellent work, and after hours she uses the studio to direct her own screenplay, using the actors who star in the porn films. In the process she falls in love with the head of the film studio, despite the fact that he tells her that all people want is sex, not love.

It's an ironic situation, a proponent of chastity working at a pornographic studio, and it leads to many comic moments. I can't help thinking that Leelee is speaking out of character when she implores others to save themselves for marriage. This is what she did in real life. She remained a virgin until she married at 26, not for religious reasons but simply because she thought it was right.

Click here to view the trailer.