Eve (Tilda Swinton) is an ambitious lawyer who has just won a very important case against a millionaire with a bad reputation. However, she has some insecurities and problems in her personal life, including helping her kleptomaniac sister.
To make this film, screenwriters Susan Streitfeld and Julie Hebert were inspired not by an original novel or subject, but by psychoanalyst Louise J. Kaplan’s Freudian text Female Perversions: the Temptations of Emma Bovary. In an interview, director Susan Streitfeld said, “It was difficult to find an actress to play the lead role of the calculating, careerist woman. Until Tilda Swinton came along and resolved the issue with a magnificent performance.”
Indeed, Tilda Swinton is perfect, with the chameleonic ability that allows her to completely transform from one scene to the next. She gives us her first full-frontal nude in the third minute of the film, as she’s riding a man. When she gets out of bed, we admire Tilda Swinton naked in all her beauty. Eight minutes later the actress is in a store trying on lingerie that greatly enhances her round ass. Thirty-eight minutes later, Tilda Swinton and Karen Sillas give us a long, very exciting lesbian sequence. Nine minutes later, Frances Fisher is engaged in a very sexy photo shoot. Ten minutes later, Tilda Swinton is walking around the house wearing only panties, bra, and pantyhose. Seven minutes later, we find Tilda Swinton naked in the bathroom. A short time later, Amy Madigan joins her, undresses, and they both get into the tub. In the following scene, Marcia Cross naked. One of the very rare nude scenes of the desperate housewife. Marcia is straddling a man and teasing her breasts with a brush. The man, however, rejects her and chases her away.
