If it was feminist French filmmaker Catherine Breillat's goal in Fat Girl to make her audiences feel like voyeurs, she has succeeded admirably.

Whether audiences should be witness to the explicit seduction of a 15-year-old virgin is another question altogether.

Breillat's cameras are unswerving in their candid observation of the seduction of the virginal Elena (Roxane Mesquida) by Fernando (Libero De Rienzo), a law student.

Mesquida was probably 18 when she made the film, but is convincing as 15, which is why the film was banned in Ontario.

Equally disturbing and questionable is that Breillat has Elena's 12-year-old sister Anais (Anais Reboux) observe these sexual encounters. The sisters share a bedroom, with Anais' bed just feet away from where Elena and Fernando are groping each other's naked bodies.

It's naive to pretend 15-year-olds aren't thinking about sex, if not actually having it, which is the premise of Breillat's Fat Girl.

Many films have dealt with budding sexuality, but with a less explicit approach than Breillat traditionally takes in her films, most specifically in 1998's Romance, her most brazen and controversial sexual romp.

The sisters couldn't be more different. Elena is svelte, precocious, self-confident. Anais is overweight, morose and withdrawn.

The irony is that Anais is far more astute and intuitive than her older sister.

Like the audience, Anais knows Fernando is not sincere when he tells Elena he loves her and that only by giving herself to him completely can she prove she loves him in return.

As controversial and questionable as the sex scenes is the film's climax. It's violent, excessive and, though it has been foreshadowed, seems contrived and manipulative.

On the plus side, the performances in Fat Girl are astonishing for their credibility. Reboux and Mesquida are so natural and unaffected they don't actually seem to be acting.

De Rienzo makes Fernando a smooth cad. Anais and Elena's parents, played by Romain Goupil and Canadian actress Arsinee Khanjian, are largely to blame for what happens. They are too wrapped up in themselves to see, let alone prevent, the dangers that loom.

Fat Girl is a powerful, insightful film that goes disastrously astray in its final few minutes.

(This film is rated R)

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