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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: Sundance
Salesrank: 45239
Released: April 26, 2005 |
| Our Price: $39.99 |
| Used Price: $6.03 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Elaine and David seem to have the perfect marriage. But everything changes when they meet Chet, an innocent 15 year old boy full of youthful wonder. The threesome form an immediate bond, but a momentary lapse in judgment threatens to rupture the core of the trio's seemingly idyllic lives. A sensual tale of the complexity of marriage and desire, Book Of Love examines the choices we make in our daily lives-and the consequences that follow.
Description of Book of Love:
Book of Love takes what could be a trashy premise and turns it into a strikingly honest examination of human messiness. Elaine (Frances O'Connor, Mansfield Park) and David (Simon Baker, The Ring Two) are a happy, successful couple who befriend a clever, athletic, but lonely 16 year-old boy named Chet (Gregory Smith, Everwood). But when Chet falls in love with Elaine, she responds and sleeps with him out of a mix of sympathy and desire. From here the story could have become overwrought melodrama, but the subtle script, perfectly-pitched performances, and lucid direction make Book of Love a portrait of smart, articulate people at the mercy of their least articulate emotions: lust, jealousy, anger, fear. Writer/director Alan Brown, making his debut feature film, even manages to weave in issues of goodness and the history of Cambodia without the movie ever feeling academic or didactic--on the contrary, the movie feels intimate and physical throughout, as concerned with the character's animal responses as with their struggle to remain rational. Also featuring Bryce Dallas Howard (The Village) and music from indie bands The Magnetic Fields and Clem Snide. --Bret Fetzer
Book of Love Reviews:
Interesting 
2009-12-20 - The first time I watched it, I didn't get this movie. How could a grown woman, who is supposedly happily married to a man who obviously loves her, allow herself to be seduced by a 15-year-old?
As the movie progressed, I asked myself why her husband just accepted her indiscretion and why he wouldn't allow his anger to show. It all comes out in the end, just like in life.
This was a profound story if you look deeply at what's going on. Especially for David.
A little hard to watch but it will leave you with questions.... 
2009-11-26 - I found this movie a little hard to watch but it does spark conversation. Worth watching but don't expect to feel good afterward. All actor performances are wonderful and very present.
I loved watching the interaction between husband and wife in the beginning of the film - a couple with obvious passion and fun. It was difficult to watch it deteriorate which it did too quickly. It was sad to see people who were so comfortable with each other have nothing to say - I found that a bit too unrealistic for me but, in afterthought, probably pretty realistic for many couples. The three people don't seem to talk to each other - each in their own painful world, hurt and hurting.
I don't believe in giving blow by blow plot turns and details about a movie I hope you will watch. Decent movie but disturbing, at least for me. Oh, on a funny note, the director asked Simon to somehow try to look more plain - tall order. Even with 15 extra pounds put on specifically for this role, the man looks good!
Shocking and fascinating premis
2009-02-01 - Some of the plot surprised even me.....Very provocative.
Michael Travis Jasper
author of the novel, "To Be Chosen"
Close 
2008-01-25 - BOOK OF LOVE is one of those first time films that becomes an "Official Selection" for The Sundance Festival and then goes to DVD.Alan Brown wrote and directed his feature.His aspirations,according to the very short interview on the DVD,was to examine why "good people do bad things" and not make a judgment.Well...there was the first judgment right out of his mouth when he used the definite terms "good" and "bad".Secondly he tries to integrate the true life events surrounding the famous Mary Kay LeTourneau teacher-having-sex-with-underage-student tabloid with the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia in the characters of Elaine and David who irresponsibly become over-involved with an underaged boy....None of this works in the least. IndieWIRE says that this film is "...Deliciously creepy." Yeah,they're right.At 83 minutes with that "indie looking film-look and that Indie soundtrack" this film tries way too hard to make points that simply do not connect.The characters do not work.The plot is disconnected and the talents of Frances O'Connor,Simon Baker,Gregory Smith and Bryce Dallas Howard....well,I think Simon Baker tries...kinda? I commend SUNDANCE and their vision.Some films that rise from SUNDANDCE are wonderful.This is not one of them.
The DVD packaging has "3+1/2 stars...The performances are terrific." from [...]! I rest my case.PASS....
You will know Frances O'Connor from Mansfield Park; Simon Baker from [[ASIN:B00003CY5S The Affair of the Necklace; Gregory Smith from The Patriot (Special Edition) and Bryce Dallas Howard from The Village (Widescreen Vista and [[ASIN:B000JLTR8Q Lady in the Water (Widescreen Edition)Series)]]. Everyone of these actors are at least 6 years older than the parts they are portraying.It looks like it!
HIGH ASPIRATIONS - MIXED DELIVERY
2007-04-16 - I'm always drawn to complicated love, and despite some reviewers' below, the storyline is less plausible than many would say. It's more of an issue of one bad choice leading to another, then another, even when one is trying to correct the initial mistake with good intent. The problem is that few of us know ourselves and our suppressed desires very well, even the smarter of us... especially when sex and power are part of the stew.
The film falters most because it only hits highlights of a crisis, and, thus, these come off as seeming artsy or forced, or student-filmish, but still admirable, nonetheless (especially when compared to the crap mainstream Hollywood dispenses every weekend). For instance, the Cambodian theme never gels into focus; it seems well-intended and pregnant, but never more than that, and when Chet winds up there in the end, it does not ring true.
A lot does ring true, and for this the director and cast should be applauded. Simon Baker does a good turn at elucidating the ties between his sexuality and his aggression, as felt for both his wife, and the youth; the tussle in the hotel room is as telling for him as it is for the viewer. I like Frances O'Connor's turn a lot, and found her totally believable until the very end. Her character is probably the most honest in the film, while having made the bigger mistake initially.
A NOTE TO CURRENT FILMMAKERS: please spare us your favorite music supervisor skills! Every frame does not need some rock-pop overly-instructive pap smeared over it. What happened to SCORING???? To silence??? Go rent an early Bertolucci film if you have forgotten or don't know. That almost ruined this film, as it has many in the past ten years. No, I dont want to buy the frigging soundtrack!
