'Tell Me What You Want' Review: It Stands There, Looks Pretty, and That's About It
Judith (Gabriela Andrada) is a data analyst at a pharmaceutical company in Spain. One day, she meets a mysterious, handsome man (Mario Ermito) in the elevator. He wastes no time trying to seduce her, and she seems to enjoy it. It turns out that this chiselled stud is Eric Zimmerman, the new owner of the company after his father’s death. He proceeds to impose himself upon her, taking her out to dinner and introducing her to some of his fetishes. What follows is a long stretch of push & pull, where Judith and Eric taking turns recoiling from each other and then reconciling to have more make-up sex. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Tell Me What You Want has been described as an erotic romantic drama. It certainly tries to deliver all three, in the most hackneyed way possible. No amount of lush Spanish locations can distract the cliche-ridden story. For example, Eric is a devilishly handsome man with all the money, time, and power in the world to pursue Judith. In a not-so-shocking twist, he’s also utterly addicted to no-strings-attached sexual exploration but repulsed by commitment. As you might have already guessed, this is thanks to a traumatic betrayal in his past. He dismisses her work in front of colleagues, then drops by her apartment to take her on a date, never letting up on this seesaw of attraction and rejection. This mundane and predictable character is not the fault of the actor; Ermito is absolutely doing his best with a completely thankless assignment.
Judith fares better as this film’s protagonist, both in terms of acting and writing. She is an attractive and charming character, with at least a perfunctory amount of traits and characteristics. She is a cat mom who is both unappreciated at work and too shy to stand up for herself, but she’s also enough of a daredevil to ride motorcycles. It makes some sense that her character would be attracted to someone like Eric, but nor is she a complete doormat. She draws the line in the sand several times, hence the constant roller coaster that is their relationship.
Meanwhile, there are fragments of subplots which never really amount to anything. Judith’s supervisor Monica (Celia Freijeiro) begins an affair with one of Judith’s co-workers (David Solans) while Judith spies on them. Despite all the promise that such a premise has, this storyline goes nowhere and is barely even mentioned again after the first act. We meet several of Eric’s friends who indulge in his kinks, but we learn precious little about Eric through them, and their scenes only serve to give more vanilla sex scenes. Judith gets a rival at one point, but she’s gone after four or five scenes and as many lines. We’re introduced to Judith’s family, as well as a tragic backstory regarding her mother’s death, but once again, too little is done. Judith also becomes drawn to the beautiful woman called Rebeca (Alicia Bercan) in a gym where these two women seem to be the only patrons. There is also a twist ending which basically comes out of nowhere and brings the story to a clunky and abrupt halt.
Directed by Lucia Alemany, the film was apparently written by three people (Ivy Hesh, Vivien Dakota, and Marina Martin Laguna) and is based on a bestselling book by Megan Maxwell. One wonders why this movie needed three screenwriters, or even a book to be based on in the first place. Even compared to softcore porn films on cable, this plot is basic. Admittedly, the cinematography is fine, the sex scenes are tame but plentiful and well-shot, the music is decent, and the actors are clearly talented. If anything, however, these positives only enforce that sense of wasted potential. It wouldn’t have been hard to make a more interesting story; the filmmakers had all the pieces right there, but they were apparently content with the most banal version they could put together.