大象传媒

Brett Leonard, director of Lawnmower Man and Virtuosity, serves up another dark slice of the online world with Feed, a hackneyed detective vehicle built to probe the lurid habits of feeders and gainers - the fetishistic subculture of morbidly obese women and the men who derive pleasure from serving them ever more food. A bed-ridden plot and an undercooked script keep things lean on the entertainment front, but there's still plenty to chew on beside the extreme squirms and shocks.

Patrick Thompson plays Phillip, an obsessive Aussie internet policeman who becomes convinced that one feeder/gainer website is a front for something more sinister. He tracks down its owner (Alex O'Loughlin's suave and dangerous Michael) to respectable middle America, but the closer he gets to the truth the more his own prejudices and emotions cloud his judgement. Garish colour filters, jarring edits and an outlandish soundtrack add to the senses of dislocation and nausea, the latter of which is gleefully promoted by Leonard, who serves up lashings of the repulsive and the grotesque. At the centre of these sometimes difficult scenes is Gabby Millgate as the gainer Dierdre, whose wild intensity and suprising tenderness shine brightly through an astonishing fat-suit.

"TRULY CREEPY"

What gives this film its truly creepy side is its blurring of the line between consent and abuse, as underscored in a subplot revealing Philip's own uncomfortable sex-life. Michael's rants on consumption and consumerism threaten briefly to open up the psychology of the feeder/gainers. But such subtleties are sadly abandoned for a muddled ending whose twist feels barely half-baked.