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Plot Summary: "Strip Search follows several parallel stories examining personal freedoms vs. national security in the aftermath of 9/11; two main subplots involve an American woman detained in China and an Arab man detained in New York City." This is a very short but somewhat complex movie that manipulates the viewer so that you can see how two different people are treated in two different countries. We start out feeling sorry for the American woman who is treated poorly in China but not the the Chinese man treated poorly in America. Clearly, in the end we understand that our prejudice clouds our judgment. I know this all sounds kind of deep but the movie is far more enjoyable than my review. Maggie Gyllenhaal plays the American "damsel in distress" who is stripped and interrogated and she is superb. There's no question she does career full frontal and rear nudity in well lit scenes and that alone makes this very, very collectable. This movie was made and released on HBO shortly after 9/11 and for some reason it was pulled from their schedule shortly thereafter. It is seldom shown on HBO and has never been released in DVD or any other format. I assume the Bush administration claimed some sort of national security idea to get HBO to bury this excellent movie. This is one of those rare times that we review a movie that is not available on DVD, but we can't ignore a film that's in our top 25. |
