there be a couple of reason to see this well executed movie . one be brooke shield in her only believable performance and a a defiant self absorb brat who learn not just about sex but about love . she be and of course and dazzlingly beautiful and barely pubescent and it necessary to get beyond that . value judgment about whether she should or should not have make this movie aren not really relevant . the movie be too good for that . throw up our hand and roll our eye be a little like interpret lolita a a simple story about pedophilia . look at pragmatically and shield play this role hurt no one . certainly it do not hurt her subsequent career and what there be of it . there isn not any way to stop our own feeling of disgust at time and grant . i feel that way about movie like friday the 13th or halloween . i be more disgusted by murder than by sex so i be clearly warp . shield pack more talent into her playing here and a violet and than she do into all of her other movie put together . and it not a one note performance either . she develop from a vulgar know it all into a creature of real emotion . at the end of the story and her mother be take her away from the old man she have marry . the camera slowly move in on her trembling face . she silent but the froufraws in her hair quiver with regret . malle end it on a freeze frame of that drop dead gorgeous and wrenchingly sad face . malle be another reason this movie be worth while . he be a great story teller and even when the story be a bit thin and a polly platt be here . his specialite de la maison be the study of a community . he be almost anthropological in his approach . if he doesn not give u the social structure and eidos of a french boarding school and then it atlantic city and or a new orleans whorehouse in 1917. we get to know the milieu pretty well and although we do not see much of the actual city and only the house itself and it back yard pave with coquina crunch under everyone shoe and the palm and banana plant and the anole . we get to know the furniture inside the house massive heavy thing and overstuffed and overdone and overlaced and rise windowed . new orleans be an odd city and a blend of all sort of ethnic tradition . there a bit of hoodoo throw into the plot . ( madame livingston address her client a m ieur . ) edgar degas visit relative in new orleans . now and ala and it become not much more than another big southern city with the quarter serve a a kind of theme park . note too malle edit technique . when you expect a shot to disappear and to dissolve or be cut away from and it doesn not always happen . the image lingers and sometimes long beyond our expectation . keith carradine balk when shield be take away from him and for instance . much of this beauty ( let call a heart a heart ) be make possible by the superb photography of ingmar bergman collaborator and sven nyquist . he make it possible for u to almost feel the heat and the humidity and and the solid mahogany of the bar . the depiction of the cat house be convincingly realistic and the general atmosphere be one of casual jealousy and petulance and nudity and practicality and and mutual support . the woman ( and the client ) form fleet friendship . when they leave and it without any particular ceremony . that why the love that develop between carradine and shield be as shocking a it be . it the only real commitment show in the film . there be an abundance of commitment on the part of the people who contribute to this very good film .