7. Damage (1992)
Dr Stephen Fielding is an MP who falls head over heels with his son's girlfriend Anna and finds that she is open to a sexual relationship. They begin a steamy love affair behind both their partners' backs. There is a lot of sex in the movie, oodles of it. Anna has merely used Stephen's son Martyn as a vessel to get to Stephen. She still keeps up the torrid affair after she accepts Martyn's offer of marriage. When Martyn catches them at it, the consequences are dire. A film about obsession and how it can destroy a person and their life, Damage is uncompromising in its depiction of fairly close to the knuckle sex scenes and the literal 'damage' that can ensue when adultery occurs. The acting in the film from Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche is amazing. Anna is not a nice or honourable person. Okay, she may be a bit mentally ill, but to watch her ruthlessly pursue Stephen whilst planning the wedding to his son is morally reprehensible. She wants to have her cake and eat it. Stephen is in the grip of an erotic obsession but Anna is just a scheming, manipulative cow. Her actions cause extreme tragedy and ruin a family, they also destroy Stephen's career. He is left a broken man with nothing. Okay, he did a terrible thing by having an affair with Anna but he surely could not have foreseen the dreadful tragedy that would occur, Anna constructed that tragedy. The easy option is to blame Stephen for all of it, but at least he had the grace to pull back when Anna and Martyn announced their engagement. Anna was the pursuer and the home wrecker. A tough film to sit through.