How Far? Too Far?

As most of you know, I am a rabid Britophile. Give me practically anything British and I'll jump sky high. I especially love British books and films. I especially love great British actors. And I especially love Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson.

So imagine my surprise, my thrill, my veritable ecstasy when I learned about a movie starring both of them--and only them. Yes indeed, it's The Song of Lunch: an hour-long drama drawn almost completely from a long poem, dialog and all, and starring only two characters.

The plot is very simple: two ex-lovers reunite after 15 years for lunch at a little Italian restaurant. Their conversation starts out well, but does not go quite as planned. After all is said and done they both realize that they can never erase the past or recapture what is gone. It was a brilliant movie with truly insightful, human writing and two of the greatest actors on the screen today.

But I cannot give this film my wholehearted approbation. It is uncomfortably sensual and I had to fast-forward through some rather revealing parts. But I was enjoying it so much that even after one or two "indiscreet" parts I just had to watch it to the end.

Which brings me to the subject of this post.

How far is too far? Everyone has their own standards of decency, and many would draw the line at, let's say, Die Hard. Now that's probably pretty easy for most people, especially romantic teenage girls who aren't exactly fascinated by nonstop action and machine guns. However, what if we examine a racy romantic comedy? I can hear it now...

"Oh, you can just skip the bad parts." 

"It's really not that indecent, I mean there's just a couple scenes." 

"It's just entertainment! Give me a break."

"But it's so worth it in the end."

But is it worth it? Is it really worth it to you? Where do you draw the line? I probably won't be seeing this film again, no matter how much I enjoyed it. However, I didn't think it was bad enough to stop watching in the middle. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe you think The Song of Lunch sounds like a great movie and you will look it up and watch it yourself. Perhaps you're appalled that I actually liked it.

Fact is, I believe that it's a debatable matter, a touchy subject, and everyone has their own opinion. I'm curious to hear what you readers think about it all.