Summary
A lackluster thriller that’s predictable and dull with no chemistry between the two leads.
In Burning Betrayal, Babi (Giovanna Lancellotti) is blindsided by her fiance, who is currently on trial for money laundering. After five years of being with him, she doesn’t realize that he has been living a double life. Babi was already having doubts because her dreams were telling her something different entirely and maybe her fiance Caio (Micael) wasn’t really for her.
The film is based on the book written by Sue Hecker, O Lado Bom De Ser Traida, and the film is directed by Diego Fritas. This Spanish thriller will keep you on your toes as Babi ventures into uncharted territory based on a need to escape and for change.
When we meet Babi, she’s fantasizing about another man in her dreams. Once she wakes up, she finds herself disoriented and stuck in a relationship that she is unsure of. We find out that her fiance Caio is going to trial for money laundering. Caio is someone who travels for work and isn’t really in Babi’s life. He comes and goes when he pleases. When on trial, the audience meets the man she has been fantasizing about and it’s the judge who could sentence her fiance at any moment. There is a chemistry there between the judge and Babi, which is more prominent than what she has with her fiance.
Babi has no idea that her fiance is living another life and she finds out on the night of her Bachelorette party that he has been cheating on her for two years. He even planned on marrying the other woman while still having her as his wife. None of that made sense to Babi so she decided to change her life a bit. She went after what she wanted and ended up with the judge. He’s a bit of a mysterious person but she agrees to not want an actual relationship with him and that everything is purely sexual.
The issue with Burning Betrayal is that it gets away from the actual story of the fiance cheating on her. It becomes another Fifty Shades of Grey with Babi consenting to this relationship. There are montages of Babi and Marco being intimate with one another with no actual story being told. Sure, their relationship grows and they become closer, but he chooses not to let her into his life. The direction by Diego Fritas is jumbled because he doesn’t know what to do with his characters. Even the sex scenes feel too frequent and through the male gaze, and if it’s for Babi’s pleasure mostly, it doesn’t work at all.
This has been a topic for discussion for a while now and in a way, it’s a necessary one. In the particular case of Burning Betrayal, the nudity was gratuitous and the sex scenes were by the numbers. The main reason people question why there should be intimate sexual moments in films is because there’s a lack of chemistry or passion.
There’s no build-up or tension anymore when it comes to these scenes. Sure, you can have them for the sake of having them, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are good. If you look at films from the past, the majority relied on tension between the characters.
Just because two people are very attractive doesn’t mean the chemistry is there. And that’s the main issue with movies like Burning Betrayal. People do want to watch films that have some sexual intimacy but when it falls into pornographic territory with no emotions that’s when it becomes distasteful. You lose a sense of what the story is about and why you should even care about these characters.
Read More: Burning Betrayal Ending Explained
