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(More customer reviews)Blackmail, murder, infidelity, subversive desire, it plays out just like a Greek tragedy, and who better to make a film about these subjects than the Greeks! The critics ravaged this melodrama when it came out the end of last year, but I must confess that kind of enjoyed it. Of course, not once is the film remotely realistic, and Michalis Reppas and Thansassis Papathanasiou's film is often crude and trite, but this totally over-the-top story is never dull and young Greek actor Yannis Tsimitselis provides some great eye candy.
When he was a boy a car accident left Christos's sister dead and his comatose father dependent on a respirator for the rest of his life. Now his father serves as something of a Greek chorus observing his money-starved family self-destruct from his corner of the house: his wife Magda (Nena Mendi) is not only sleeping with their tightfisted daughter's husband, Stelios (Alexis Georgoulis), but also appears to be conspiring with him to steal money and land away from a local businessman Giorgos (Akyllas Karazisis).
When Christos (Tsimitselis), walks into a room everyone notices him, he's a sulky pretty boy who works in the bakery belonging to Magda and zips around his provincial town on a motorcycle. He needs to move fast because he's juggling affairs with Fay, a pretty dance instructor, Gia (Joyce Evidi), a fixated older divorcée, and the manipulative Giorgos, who has a wife and two sons, but is actually closeted.
Christos can't keep the hectic pace up for long, and it eventually all comes to a climax, there's a complex web of sexual liaisons and real estate finagling, with a payoff that comes as a shock when the real blackmailer is finally revealed. The sexual scenes - particularly between the Christos and Giorgos are a bit tame, especially when you consider that the scenes between Christos and Gia are far more graphic. But the real scene-stealer and the one with the most laughs - is when Magda begins to give her son-in-law oral service, just as her daughter and his wife is arriving home.
Of course after about an hour or so all this amorality does get a little too hard to follow - there's the matriarch who is sleeping with her daughter's son, who is blackmailing his brother-in-law, who is having an affair with both an older woman and an older man, the latter of whom holds the key to a business venture, which is being manipulated by Magda, who ... well you get the picture. Whether you like Blackmail Boy will depend on your propensity for suffering through soap opera and unabashed amusing melodrama. For the most part, the action is just too preposterous to be taken seriously, but it's still fun to watch. Mike Leonard April 06.
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