Melissa P. (2005)

I was so glad to see a film reach for reality. Too many films drop the ball on actually hitting what truly does happen in real life. Built the story and ran with it , great decision making on all accounts during the filming. Just wished they push the envelope a lil more, would've made this a lot better. Certain scenes missed on how it went down & what happened immediately after, not the next day or hours later. Would've been great to see how a few scenes actually ended & how the main character walked away from it ? ***IF anyone knows any other films similar to this, Please fill me in.

I've written 5 movies myself, just not sure how to get them out there ?

Fmovies: I just learned this movie is based on a book. I must say I would never read it. The story line has absolutely no value -a young girl believes that just because her first sexual encounter was somehow traumatic, that made her instantly an expert on men and sex- it's really a poor subject. Besides, there are no interesting dialogs nor an appealing related story to support it. The main actress Valverde doesn't look young enough and most of the rest of the cast seems isolated. On the plus side, the movie is nicely shot, the background songs are appropriate and Geraldine Chaplin brings some brightness as the bohemian grandmother. Teenagers sexuality is a subject that should be treated with more depth otherwise the result is sooo vain.

I saw very little of the book in this film, this is not to say that this alone makes for a poor movie. As a matter of fact it was better that the book despite the fact that I still thought it was awful. I personally feel that the only reason any one bothered to make this book into a film was because of the shock value. Melissa's sexual exploits were for the most part disgusting and whatever was left over was disturbing. I'm not prude but that book nauseated me, and the movie wasn't much better. At least the movie had some kind of a story. The book was more or less a detailed list of all the raunchy things she had done in her past, there was no connection between her and any part of her family. No mention of the grandmother that figures quite largely into the movie's plot, not a peep. All in all if you have the choice between the movie or the book pick the movie, at least it is shorter.

Melissa P. fmovies. I saw many embarrassed and even angry reviews on this film, which were pushing me off the chair, and i wanna talk not about the film itself, but the topic it chose. Because that caught me in memories of my youth, that is what also makes a great film, the script, and I can't be grateful enough for this made me remember.

The film is not as much of a fiction as many would like it to be. In very realistic way discloses the hyper-sensitivity of youth, the feelings, the special way everything is coming to a man's brain, the sex, the colors, messed up thoughts...and then here are decisions. It is wonderful how Melissa always want to choose what to do with her life, what to feel, how to act, what to search for, but somehow the change is only in her deeds but not in her inside, her diary pickups are often in disharmony with what happens to her afterwards. But although she is in fact doing this to herself, she is just so full of it! And so she is coping with her teenage pain as rational as she can in her age. Of course, the sex. When you don't know what it is, but you want it badly. She is less self-aware then the character played by Liv Tyler in Stealing Beauty, but much more pro-active. She doesn't let situations pass by, she is grabbing what she can of them, she does not wait in a corner. That's what i liked at Melissa. The cruelty of acts and the sweetness of the inside. Unsplittable. And that this movie is more real than a sweet romance movie. It is of the age - if she were a little more older, the tender detailed camera would lost its narrative function. And maybe the casting would pickup another actress.

Anyway, I love it more and more. It's telling exactly the teen story, which have been missed.

All too often a young girl's first sexual experience is not pleasant. Girls have love in their hearts and want desperately to be liked. Boys, on the other hand, just want to get their rocks off.

Melissa P. is a well-written, realistic depiction of what happens to a young girl - Melissa - as the result of her first sexual experience with an arrogant, self-centered young man who uses her as a receptacle. Angry and disillusioned, Melissa takes a destructive path.

Well-done is Melissa's redemption (and payback): a symbolic "cleansing" as she falls backwards into the sea as her horrified peers gape.

Melissa P. is not for viewers who are uncomfortable watching a teenage girl being treated like a sexual object. The scenes between Melissa and her "suitors" are realistic, but not graphic like an x-rated movie. Just remember, what happens to Melissa happens to too many young girls. And this is why I think this movie should be watched by parents and young teenage girls.

If parents did their jobs - discussing sex with their daughters and telling them how and why some boys are pigs - there wouldn't be the Melissa's of the world. Or, if this movie was shown in sex ed classes - that ain't ever going to happen - young girls would know which boys to look out for, and avoid.

As far as the cast, Maria Valverde's portrayal of Melissa is Oscar-worthy. Geraldine Chaplin always takes small parts and makes them memorable.

'Melissa P.' is far too weak and clichéd to be a good film. Upon enjoying 'Lo Sono L'amore' and 'A Bigger Splash' and anticipating 'Call Me By Your Name' I figured I should watch all the other films by Italian director Luca Guadagnino. Due to other poor reviews, and the fact that this is one of Guadagnino's early films, I didn't have many high expectations. However, even my mediocre expectations were disappointed by this film. The story was poorly handled and saturated with predictable clichés that caused the film to be un engaging. Surely though, since this is labelled as an "erotic drama" the love scenes will be appealing? Not at all. They were filmed in a very amateur manner and they were cut short, so nothing really happened. For a movie entered around an individual's sex life, all the sexual tension leads up to a few moments of kissing and then before things get excessive, it's cut short. However, there were a few moments of this film that were rather good, such as the character of Melissa's grandmother, played by the wonderful Geraldine Chaplin. The leading role of Melissa was also played quite well by María Valverde and she pulled off the sexually-charged character quite well. There were also a few moments where Guadagnino's potential was shown through some beautifully filmed scenes that is essentially a good indication of the good to come in his future films. While this film had it's moments, overall it was a disappointing bore. I won't hold this film against Guadagnino as I know it is one of his earlier films, and having seen his more recent, brilliant films, I still commend him as a great director. This movie is a good indication of how far Guadagnino has come in his filmography.