— Isn’t love the point of it all?
— Of what?
— Of everything.
Pillion first caught my attention through the bold, erotic, leather-heavy outfits Alexander Skarsgård wore during its promotion. Thankfully so, because while the film places sex right at the forefront, it ultimately becomes a tender reflection on what we gain and lose when we dare to love.
The film isn’t really centered on Skarsgård’s character, Ray. Instead, it focuses on the doors Ray, and his submission-based approach to relationships, opens for Colin, a shy young man.
Colin is reserved but affectionate, quiet yet funny. When Ray enters his life, handsome, charismatic, and impossible to ignore, Colin’s world is completely shaken.
Pillion is a film I’d recommend to anyone who, like me, thinks a lot about what it means to draw boundaries in a relationship. While watching, I wanted to shout at Colin, urging him to ask for what he needs. When he finally learns to do so and gets what he wants, he also suffers a major loss. Still, it feels worth it. Even briefly, he touches the promise of love and the happiness it can bring.
Through his relationship with Ray, Colin realizes that his gentleness and submissiveness are not weaknesses but strengths. They allow him to experience intimacy and passionate desire, and he learns to embrace this side of himself.
Ray, meanwhile, hides thick, nearly impenetrable walls behind his authority. And the reason is exactly what you’d expect: his heart is far more fragile than it seems.
Colin’s transformation isn’t shaped solely by what he learns about his sexuality, desires, and character through his submission-based relationship with Ray. Through Ray’s LGBTQ+ motorcycle club, he also discovers how liberating it can be to belong to a community that embraces difference and offers a unifying sense of belonging.
Living in a small city in England, with an ordinary job but an extraordinary, loving family, Colin’s emotional vision begins to widen. Thanks to this world, one that had been breathing right beside him all along, he learns to see differently. And in doing so, the film gives us the courage to look at our own surroundings with fresh eyes as well.