In many ways, the laughably silly ending of Netflix’s Desire is a very unconventional form of marriage counselling. Just cheat on your spouse with a very obsessive younger gentleman, the unintentionally hysterical erotic thriller seems to say, and all will eventually be well. The only cost is a moral one, and in a movie this vacuous, that’s a relatively small affair.
Speaking of small affairs, Lucero striking up a sexual relationship with her daughter’s swimming coach turns out to be the least of her problems in this dopey movie, which morphs throughout its runtime into something resembling a more traditional, unsexy thriller. And yet the takeaway, ultimately, is that things will probably be alright in the end. The couple that covers up a murder together stays together.
Spice Up Your Life
The plot of Desire is predicated on two things: Lucero and Fernando having a sexless marriage, and neither of them being adult enough to talk to the other about it. They’re happy in some sense, but their respective emotional and physical needs aren’t being met.
To plug this hole – perhaps not the best choice of words, I’ll grant you – Lucero turns to Matias, the new swimming coach of her daughter, Viviana. He’s twenty years younger and handsome and immediately takes a shine to Lucero, who also immediately begins fantasising about him in the shower while Fernando lurks outside the door. It’s an accident waiting to happen, and indeed it does happen multiple times.
Lucero is trying to address problems in her marriage by fulfilling her private fantasies. It’s an understandable idea with wildly unintended consequences, as we’ll see.
Part of the Plan
Lucero and Matias’s relationship goes wrong for a few reasons. First, it’s uncovered by a client who tries to blackmail Lucero with it, causing her to try to call the whole thing off. This sends Matias into a bit of a sulky spiral. But the real death knell is that Fernando not only knew about the affair all along but actually paid Matias to pursue it and film it for his own benefit.
Putting aside the hypocrisy of Lucero thinking that this was the problem and not the affair itself, which she nonetheless pursued despite not knowing that Fernando was rigging it, at some point, Matias fully bought in and decided he was head-over-heels in love with Lucero. Her breaking things off sends him crazy, which is why he confesses to Fernando’s involvement, but after that point he refuses to take no for an answer.
Matias’s master plan is to date Viviana, just to annoy Lucero, and he also lightly blackmails Lucero with the videos he recorded for Fernando. But then a new problem emerges – he dies.
Who Killed Matias?
When Matias is found dead at the pool under mysterious circumstances, there is no shortage of suspects. Viviana was the last person to see him alive, Lucero was being blackmailed, and Fernando was the jealous husband. The “big twist” of Desire is that everyone was pretty much equally culpable.
First, Julian, the younger son whom I kept forgetting existed because he had basically nothing else to do, drugged Matias while he was at the house gloating about his relationship with Viviana. Then, Viviana found out about the affair with Lucero while he was high as a kite by looking through his messages, and she pushed him, causing him to bang his head. Then, Fernando turned up and didn’t help the injured Matias, instead giving him a kick to the head – he was taunting Fernando, to be fair – and leaving him for dead. And then, finally, Lucero turned up and drowned him.
Ironically, Julian drugging Matias is what leads to an accidental overdose becoming his official cause of death, getting the entire family off the hook in one fell swoop.
Happily Ever After?
None of the family suffers any consequences for murdering Matias. His death is ruled an accident, and that’s that. Everyone gets on with their day. More to the point, Lucero isn’t held to account for beginning the affair, nor is Fernando held to account for facilitating it behind his wife’s back. The whole dysfunctional unit just gets away with everything.
What’s more is that Lucero and Fernando finally start having sex again, their libidos presumably repaired by covering up a murder together. It’s certainly cheaper than paying a therapist.
