With the Paris 2024 Olympic Games now underway, here's a review of Hard, which is a recent film from studio Dorcel and director Hervé Bodilis.
The film stars Lauren Walker and her partner James Duval who are both fitness crazy. It's not explained properly until halfway through, but they have a "cross-training competition" coming up, so they seemingly spend all day training in preparation for it. It doesn't sound appealing at all to me, but I suppose I should learn from their example and do more exercise. At least they do seemingly manage to squeeze in a bit of time for some shower sex.
Their coach is Marcello Bravo, who really pushes them hard (hence the film's title). Lauren and James are pushed to the limit, and Marcello squeezes all he can out of them. We see the obligatory exercise shots set to a pastiche of "Eye of the Tiger".
As the competition approaches, Marcello enlists Shalina Devine to lend a hand. She has a different approach that is more forgiving. Shalina highlights the importance of not pushing one's body too hard, as it can cause and exacerbate injuries. It's interesting to compare Marcello's and Shalina's approaches.
The film is beautifully shot, with some pretty cool drone footage. Lauren gives an amazing performance and certainly looks the part. The sex scenes are sensual and enthralling. Unfortunately, the story is told rather clumsily, with characters appearing with little-to-no introduction and key pieces of information withheld for no reason. The film also ends abruptly with no proper resolution. It's a shame that the execution of the story lets down this film because it's otherwise really rather enjoyable.
★★★☆☆ 3/5