As the plot of the picture fully begins to develop, so does the increasingly tense love between Alicia and Dev. Upon arrival in Rio de Janeiro, the heart of the romance between Alicia and Dev surfaces: Can a woman change? Devlin's passivity is imperative to Alicia's well being as is her manipulativeness and cynicism to Devlin's. The lovers share such a harmonious balance of equal traits that it makes Devlin sick to think that he loves a woman that will not love him back. This misconceived notion that plagues Devlin throughout the picture is due to his lack of communication with Alicia. But, if Devlin were to communicate his feelings properly and openly with Alicia, then when he mutters the three words at the end of the picture (if it got that far) it might not heal Alicia as it proves to do. Devlin's normative male alexithymia will prove to be beneficial not only in cinematic terms to the plot, but in the further understanding of male/female relationships, spawning the question, do we do what we do (sexually) out of necessity, or out of human nature? I believe that we do what we do is attributed to a bit of both. Human nature comes first, necessity second because without the drive to do so it would leave us with no option of necessity.

One of the most important scenes in Notorious relating to the delicate psyche of a sexual being is when Alicia places the famed 'Unica' key that she has stolen from Alex in Devlin's palm. The importance is not in the placing of the key in Dev's palm (although that is another metaphor for marriage) but, that the "camera cannot fully penetrate the importance of the dynamics of human sexuality." (Rudy Behlmer, 2001) The recurring theme of alcohol is played out significantly in this dinner scene with the bottles repeatedly being framed and used as foreground treatment pertaining to fallic objects, which represent Devlin's sexual desire.

During Alicia's bout with the cyanide laced coffee that the Sebastians have been feeding her, she has an epiphany of the sordid events that have transpired, and in haste and desperation, she tries to make it up the staircase while acknowledging her worthlessness. Her evaluation of self-worth is dictated by her not being able to have Devlin. In Alicia's perspective, her not being able to receive love from Dev makes her an incomplete person. Moreover, Devlin is just as apt to love her as she is him, but he is under a false impression that he needs to change Alicia to love her; Devlin's gravest misconception. This proves that Notorious is primarily love story and secondly is a fictional plot against two equally diabolical powers: the Nazi's and the C.I.A. Had Devlin not adhered to male gender role stereotypes (particularly communication), the point of this poignant love story would have been lost in their sheer bliss for one another. The point of Alicia and Devlin's love is that it is theirs-not even something that Alicia's marriage to Alex could overshadow. The only change that Devlin tried to instill in Alicia was the change from loving nobody, to loving him. And as Alicia lie ghastly ill in her bed Devlin comes to her rescue to utter the only three words that save her: "I love you". Thus proving Freud's notion of the 'talking cure'. Their love dually epitomizes and allegorizes the reversal and/or mutual possession of gender role stereotypes: male resistance, passivity, fear, speechlessness, female seduction, unknowingness, reputation and a female's faithfulness of feeling (all of which are still prevalent themes or p

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2380
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)