After Blackbird, the traumatising spy-thriller bankrolled by and starring Irish dancer Michael Flatley, filmgoers thought they were safe – for a while – from bizarre and eccentrically acted dramas set in luxury paradises. But now, at the age of 22, actor and model Damian Hurley has written and directed a softcore erotic mystery drama set in the Caribbean starring his sexy mum, Elizabeth Hurley … to whom he gives a full-on sapphic love scene with a nightclub singer. As this woman’s head slinks south after a lingering kiss, Mr Hurley brings his camera very candidly indeed to what could only be described as an imminent moment of oral pleasure. We know the phrase Too Much Information … but what about Too Much Content? Too Much Freud? Or just … Too Much?
Hurley plays Lily, a woman both in mourning and in skimpy beach attire – or sometimes in a revealing athleisure two-piece, accessorised with diaphanous wrap. Lily’s daughter took her own life the previous year, drowning while in a bikini. Cue: upsetting flashback. But now Lily invites all the departed’s young friends to hang out at her palatial beachside hacienda along with her other daughter. This will bring healing. This will bring closure. This will bring gorgeous swimwear. But all these pouting people have awful sex-related secrets which may or may not reveal something about this woman’s terribly sad demise.
As for Liz herself, she brings serious décolletage energy to every scene and an overwhelming embonpoint dynamic to her husky line-readings. Once you get to the big reveal, you feel like you’ve sat through a hundred episodes of a saucy daytime soap with the saucy bits cut out. They could franchise out a sequel: Strictly Confidential in Dubai – or a dance version: Strictly Strictly Confidential.
• Strictly Confidential is on digital platforms from 13 May.
