Swinging is what couples do in a variety of ways that often include going to special clubs, parties or meeting online in order to have sex. After all, variety is the spice of life and if a relationship is built on trust and love, sharing one's body with a friend (even a new friend since a stranger is just someone we haven't met yet) shouldn't be a problem. Sex is a natural thing and it doesn't make sense to hoard it all (no, that line never works when I'm trying to pick up women either).

What the brothers did for the film was to follow several couples around as they engaged in their day-to-day routine, searching for the next partner(s). Now if this were truly all that took place, it'd be a very short documentary and not all that interesting. The most interesting part of the show was the fact that for all the claims of openness, freedom, and the rest of the spiel we got as viewers from those who were on camera, they quickly fell into the same old-fashioned morals they rebel against by being swingers, this included, but wasn't limited to petty jealousies, possessiveness, and desire to belong.

So, to me at least, it appeared like the couples shown were like most people; insulated, insecure and hypocritical (although not to a degree more so than anyone else). My point is that they weren't bad people, just people trying to expand their boundaries a bit but still held to the same constraints of society the rest of us (non-swingers) are. In the show's favor, the people on display were not the super attractive gals seen in many adult movies. Most of them were on the heavy side, had a few too many years and were similar to what I'd expect to see on daytime talk shows. This might make some viewers that are curious, willing to try the lifestyle out on a limited basis.

As a documentary, the show left me with a lot of unanswered questions; more than it answered in the first place to be honest, but it seemed fairly straightforward (I've heard it claimed as staged but I think that those claims aren't well supported). I'm going to suggest this one as a Rent It with the warning that if you want to see explicit sexual activity, look at a porno instead. The show was an interesting one and I felt like a voyeur the whole time but I can see its appeal to people, regardless of how the people looked.

Picture: The picture was presented in the television standard of 1.33:1 ratio full frame color as originally shot. There were some moments where the dark rooms made the picture look grainy and video noise, particularly during some of the sex scenes, while the interview portions were usually very clear (and well lit). There wasn't a lot of edge enhancement and I didn't see a lot of compression artifacts but this is about what you'd expect to see on HBO's Taxicab Confessions (it was made by the same people, the Gantz brothers).

Sound: The audio was presented in stereo English with a bit of separation between the channels. Some of the scenes sounded a bit hollow but it was about average for a decent documentary. It looked and sounded like a cable documentary with good production values.

Extras: The best extra was the additional six scenes included on the DVD. While it could be argued that they weren't overly erotic, if you like seeing strangers have sex and discuss the issues of the lifestyle, the extra footage was interesting. There were also some trailers, including one to the feature itself.

Final Thoughts: If you like the HBO style shows where people get undressed and entertain one another, you'll like this one just fine. It lasted about the length of a full feature movie and the production values, as well as extras, were pretty worthwhile. It also had some replay value although not as much as it could have had with a commentary (it screamed for a commentary track). Check it out.