By now you've heard that director Bernardo Bertolucci whose film Last Tango in Paris caused much heat to prickle under the collars of 70s filmgoers, has once again gone up against the MPAA film ratings to bring us a sexually explicit romp. Because of the NC-17 rating, you may not find The Dreamers at your local megaplex. Fox is banking on the idea that there is an adult audience for solid plots with frank sex in them. So how adult is it? Well, the sex is fun, whatever your preference. You get floppy penises, close-up vulva, plump breasts with bullseye-sized areola, not to mention that Matt, the American hero (actor Michael Pitt), has the most protruding nipples since Angelina Jolie in her Lara Croft Cradle of Life wet suit. If you liked Last Tango, you should like The Dreamers, but you'll find it relatively tame. The so-called "sadism" isn't. And anyone living on a rich diet of porn will find the sex a low-carb menu. Unlike Last Tango, there's no May/December love; all the naked bodies are young, attractive, and nubile. The three heroes are in the gap between protected childhood and entering "the real world" (that time of life when one has all the answers). The plot? Well, come to think of it, you might just find it on the jacket of a porn video: A French brother and sister bring a young American film student and fellow cineaste home to their Parisian lair for a soft swinging ménage a trois. (Though set in Paris--where else -- the movie is mostly in English.) But the film also looks at the way we form our identities. Most adults can relate to the difficult (maybe life-long) task of trying to combine diverse bits of philosophy, sexuality, and aesthetic into a consistent personality they can live with. It is true that anyone who's been exposed to French art, criticism, or literature and found it rather like masturbation on mental Viagra will recognize the conversations in this film. But philosophical posturing doesn't spoil the fun. Bertolucci is a master at keeping the camera eye focused on the visually vivid, allowing those who want mental exercise to look around the pretty bodies to find it.

If you're a real cinema fan, you'll love the references to great moments in 20th century film, both in movie cut-ins and in the scenery. History/politics fans will enjoy references to the chaotic latter 60s, when protests hit major cities across the globe. On the other hand, if you like taut psychological drama that you can analyze into tomorrow, you may find The Dreamers a little flat. It's more about capturing a frame of mind than following the path of growth. If you just enjoy watching decadence, or you dream about the days when you did rebellious things simply for the thrill of it, you'll love The Dreamers. It has attitude drawn from the sense of urgency everything seems to have for the young at heart. The movie asks some interesting questions. For example, where do your ideals take you; what actions do they lead you to? In terms of visual appeal, the movie is stamped with Bertolucci's peculiar sensibility. His idea of sensual is always something raw that you have to pick out of the spoiled food, sort of like the characters end up doing. At one point, one of the characters voices what Bertolucci must think is the charm of his work (or if he's more self-flattering, the value of his work): "It disgusts you but you can't look away." Still, for most viewers in these days of Fear Factor and other gross-out reality shows, the word "disgust" won't come up often. In a way, the film is a test case and people in the industry have their eye out to see whether or not The Dreamers goes down in flames. Whether Bertolucci's sensibility is for everyone's taste, the biggest issue may be that the film's exile from megaplexia will make it hard to find at a theater near you. On the other hand, the film can be mildly arousing while fascinating, and it might be worth tracking down and paying the full ticket price for, just to keep more such adult films coming our way.