Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 86% (Critics) / 90% (Audience)
Directed By: Lars von Trier
Written By: Lars von Trier
Starring: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Stacy Martin and Shia LaBeouf
Studio: Magnolia Pictures

Synopsis: A self-diagnosed nymphomaniac recounts her erotic experiences to the man who saved her after a beating. – (Source)

The Good:

“Good day, sir! I said good day!”

The Bad:
How a movie about a sex addict retelling her sexual adventures in graphic detail could end up being so gosh darn boring is amazing to me. Nothing is engaging about this film; not the script, not the direction, not the drab cinematography, not the dreadful sex scenes and definitely not the acting which is horrible from everyone even those actors who are usually so good like Stellan Skarsgård and Uma Thurman. Just a mess of a movie all around.

The Ugly
I don’t want to cast aspersions on Mr. von Trier but after watching the entirety of NYMPHOMANIAC it is hard to walk away not thinking that the man must have some truly deep seeded issues with sex and women. Whether he hates them both or just suffers from some sort of dysfunction I don’t know but there is just so much wrong in the way he depicts sexuality and womanhood that chalking up to artistic license is kind of hard to do.

Final Verdict: Neither titillating, erotic, or engrossing in any way. The sex is awkward and ugly, the nudity is gratuitous and the misogyny is quite strong. Add all of that to a meandering script that borders on the deathly dull and you have 4 hours of indulgence by a sometimes brilliant filmmaker who really should have thought twice before making this movie that fails as pornography, fails as a mirror on the puritanical way society looks at sex and just fails as a form of entertainment.

Grade: F