Ann is having a crisis of confidence. Her therapy is going nowhere as she hides from her own sexual problems using everyday insignificant issues, however as her husband John has invited Graham and old school friend from the town to stay for awhile she has other things to think about, and immerses herself in preparing for his arrival. When he finally does show and is charming and pleasant and not a shameless go-getter, Ann is surprised. While she entertains Graham however, John continues his ongoing affair with Ann's sister Cynthia who is free from all of the sexual hang-ups that her sister suffers from.

As time goes by we learn more about Graham, the big thing being that he doesn't lie, he also carries with him a secret, his secret being that he cannot maintain an erection in the presence of a woman, choosing to reveal this to Ann, although as he does so he is not sure why? He also has a secret he does not reveal which is that he tapes women talking about sex in order that he gets off.

This is the mix that Steven Soderbergh combines to create an amazing film that sucks the viewer into this strangely disturbing, yet, beautiful world as the different elements come together to form a very different picture of relationships and the human condition that goes with you after you leave the cinema.

The music is, well, not really music, more like a concoction of sound to go with the mood at a particular moment, but it captures the mood more elegantly than any attempted tune could. The performances by Andie MacDowell and Peter Gallagher are great as the couple whose relationship is just a concoction of lies, while James Spader is immaculate as the quietly disastrous Graham who has found a unique way to push women away while getting close enough to them to feel sexually close to them.

A great film that I sadly see in a lot of bargain bins because, like so many films of the eighties, it's association with this period of cinema, makes it regarded as somehow less than it is, when it is so much more than the sum of the era that spawned it.