Finding Bliss (like the earlier Amy's Orgasm, if a bit more explicit) is at its heart sentimental film dealing with sexual matters. It stars Leelee Sobieski* as a straitlaced editor who takes a job editing porn movies to get a chance to make her own more "straight" film. She falls for the director while having to use porn actors in her own film. Though a bit weak at parts, it is overall an amusing and charming film. It is a bit different and cares for its characters. Sadly, this is a bit unusual.
Bliss is a quite different type of film, concerning a teenage Turkish village girl who was raped, and destined to be a victim of an honor killing. But, her cousin, a newly returned solider from fighting Kurdish rebels (though as I recall, who he was fighting was not really addressed), cannot do the job. They meet up with a professor on a ship, who is running away from his old life as well. The cousin falls in love with the girl, saves her from the people sent to finish her off and the assumed holy man who raped her is dealt with by her father, after the ex-solider (his son) could not do the job.
It is a beautiful film to look at (including the opening scene involving her being found at the sea) and the journey the cousins take (focusing mainly on the girl) is pretty well done. I thought the ending a bit too tied up in a bow (don't like how so many films deal with evil by just killing the person off, as if that is how it is done) and the two men are somewhat thinly drawn. The movie is best when focusing on the girl, Meryem. It is a flawed but special film for certain aspects.
It is based on an international bestseller, which is much more complex. We see things through each of the three characters (and a bit from a few others), who are given bigger back stories. The basics for most of it is fairly similar, but then it goes down a different path, one more complex and in my opinion more rewarding. The cousins do not fall in love, though there is some implication that Cemal (her cousin) has fallen in love with her. No reference of the rapist being killed or him going back to the village. Meryem finds "bliss" in a small town, finally feeling that God truly loves her.
The film in other words is something of a more conventional account. Both are worth one's time, underlining that you can watch a film and read a book, getting something from both. I liked the book better, though this is not always true. The film version of Legally Blonde, for instance, was better than the book.
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* She looks and sounds like a young Helen Hunt, but unfortunately, tends to be pretty stiff in films. She is however rather good here, looking pretty sexy at spots too.