Bayflicks.net

First, let me tell you what this film is not. It’s not fun, it’s not kinky (in any positive sense of the word), and it’s not, except for a few brief moments, erotic. It is, however, a thoughtful and fascinating (if a bit dry) study of two damaged people on the edge of getting together, even though a relationship could only damage them even more. A psychotherapist (Roger Rees) falls heavily for the professional dominatrix (Geno Lechner) he’s been paying to give him the pleasure he can’t get from his wife. He wants a real relationship with her; she’s tempted, but she has her very well-founded doubts. Besides, she seems incapable of having a relationship. Nothing much really happens in Going Under, but the small details tell us plenty about these two individuals. Not surprisingly, Going Under was directed and co-written by a psychotherapist, Eric Werthman, who at 65 had never before made a film.