Monday, August 23, 2010

In Haste: Conversations with Other Women

This one is definitively one of those ones where I can't quite get past my moral compass.

"Conversations with Other Women" is about one relationship, over the course of, I don't know, maybe twelve hours.  The plot follows a man attempting to seduce the '7th bridesmaid' at his sister's wedding.  Through their banter we begin to understand that these particular people are not strangers at all.  They have a past.

This particular love story is particularly intriguing in a particular way by utilizing a particular device; in this particular case, that device is a continual split-screen.  The idea of a split-screen romance is dorky, but the implementation of the tactic by director Hans Canosa is well sculpted.  He uses the dual-panels to depict thoughts, flashbacks, and ethereal daydreams.

Helena Bonham Carter and Aaron Eckhart are pros of the acting trade.  Due in large part to their independent acting abilities, their 90 minutes of banter never becomes dull.  Never.

But here's the thing: I'm forced to not root for them.  Through various revelations, we come to know that these two people were once married.  Now they are not.  He has a twenty-two year old girlfriend (twenty-three on August 12th!) that he is ever so eager to forget.  Worse still, she has a husband.  She is a mother.  These 'realities' are presented as roadblocks to our hopeless Romeo and Juliet. 

Where does that leave me?  You've left me in a room with two lovers who have no right to each other.  You call on me to watch them commit adultery.  Then, when all is ending, we watch them return to their previous lives.

Maybe if she was in an awful marriage... maybe if her husband beat her or cheated on her continually... maybe then I'd have pity for the plight of these two hopeless romantics.  This is not the case.  Her husband is a British cardiologist who sounds quite pleasant.  Sigh.

I say again, where does that leave me?  -- It leaves me in a taxi with two narcissists.  I'm selfish enough as it is, I don't have the energy to put up with two more.
Ananias and Saphira

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