Stranger by the Lake

Beautifully crafted, sinister, frightening, erotic and thought-provoking, Alain Guiraudie’s multi-faceted Cannes triumph is already one of the most provocative, intriguing films of the year.

Alain Guiraudie's film portrays cruising as a danger-seeking and astoundingly repetitive affair, intimately linked to death itself.

This is essentially an absorbing and intelligent exploration of queer desire spiced up with thriller elements.

Sun, sex, psychosis, skinny-dipping: it sounds like genre tat, but Guiraudie’s dark, droll study of a risky attraction upends expectations. It plays by stealth, but its sly grip is sure.

Stranger by the Lake is one of those vacations that’s all right while it’s happening, but the allure dissipates once you’ve gone back to your regular routine.

Like his characters, Guiraudie is walking a tightrope, finding the point where sex and death exude a similar allure. You won't be able to look away.

Stranger by the Lake has no rating, but if it had, it would earn an NC-17 ten times over.

It's a good movie with some intriguing thriller elements to it, but I'm getting tired of these films that don't have an ending. Sure, there are two or three ways the thing could go at the final frame, but you've got to pick one, writer & director! It undercuts a quality film. Not choosing is half-assed.

Interesting ..Porn or not... Well shot.... Characters.. all depressed gay men ? why would someone put themselves in harms way ...for Sex... Love .. It took some risks bringing hardcore sex to a film which was a shock ..There's Reality in this film ..which was spot **** certainly keeps you thinking and holds you in, even I thought of turning it off..What really bugged me was the Detective looking for a murderer in the dark no less.. alone and no ****.... but I admit it left a impact.

Sexually explicit but narratively implicit, STRANGER BY THE LAKE is far too metaphorical for it's own good. Restrained direction brings to mind a Patricia Highsmith novel but unfortunately, STRANGER is too direct in its use of sex as a metaphor for the thrill of danger and death. Superb performances and wonderful cinematography all serve the director beautifully and there are a amazing set pieces but it ultimately STRANGER becomes simply cold and lifeless.

Here we have a film that is constantly intriguing as it unfolds. A careful build up observes the characters in minute detail and predictability is kept at bay. I thought I knew exactly where events were heading only to have the rug pulled from under me towards the end. Unfortunately, it is with the ending that I take issue. The story becomes more unbelievable as it progresses, silly even, and the last scenes are very unsatisfactory. Finally, I was left questioning exactly what had transpired. The look of the film is gorgeous with the lake itself providing a great backdrop to the action (so to speak). However, the unwary should be informed that there are scenes of male nudity and explicit sex.

Dear Alain Guiraudie, you should be ashamed of yourself, your movie Stranger by the lake, is the most idiotic, uninteresting, full of clichés movie I have ever seen. I refuse to see some sort of geniality in the fact that not even a murder has succeeded in injecting some excitement in the pathetically boring life of the main character who spends his days cruising in the woods by a lake. Did you not learn anything from Hitchcock (Rope, 1948), or from Joseph L. Mankiewicz (Suddenly Last Summer, 1959) or Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, 2005), or Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (I love you Phillip Morris, 2009)? Did they not teach you how to strip of commonplaces a story which involves relationships between men? You really thought that a murder would do that? I want my money back, £15!!!