It is unfortunate that American audiences appear to want three things in a film: action, action and more action. Original Sin is a tale of emotion. With beautiful cinematography, wonderful costumery, the plot is rivalled only by Hitchock's Vertigo.<br /><br />Set in Cuba in the late 19th Century, the story revolves around a man, named Luis Vargas, played by Antonio Bandaras, and the mail-order bride, with whom he falls in love. Vargas, who at the start of the film is marrying for convenience alone, because of his business, finds himself emotionally capsized by the sumptuous Julia Russell, played to the hilt by the fulsome-lipped Angelina Jolie. But when Vargas's new bride suddenly disappears, the businessman discovers that his life is now totally based in her.<br /><br />Let us go back to Vertigo, the obvious source of this film. In it, Scotty Ferguson, played by James Stewart, is obsessed with Madeleine Elster, played by Kim Novak. When Scotty witnesses Madeleine plummet to her death, his world takes a dismal tern, until he meets Judy Barton, her physical twin. The thing is that Madeleine and Judy are one and the same. Here was Hitchcock's irony of the illusion of Madeleine falling to her death actually gives rise to the demise of Scotty's soul.<br /><br />In Original Sin, Angelina Jolie plays Eve to Thomas Jane's serpent. Antonio Bandaras is poor Adam, with only one woman in all of the world for him. There is even Lillith, all too quickly dispatched. But forbidden fruit, once swallowed, the loss of Paradise is soon to appear. From my point of view, this is a must see film with intelligence, symbolism and beauty.