has anyone else seen this yet? i hadn't been expecting much, especially since Julia Roberts usually makes my head hurt when she tries to act, but i saw it yesterday and i've got to say it was phenomenal.
basically, it chronicles the sex, lies, and treachery involved in the various couplings of four characters living in London:
* Alice (?), a stripper fleeing a failed relationship in New York (Natalie Portman)
* Dan, who writes obituaries for a newspaper (Jude Law)
* Anna, an American photographer (Julia Roberts)
* Larry, a guy from a working-class background who has become a successful dermatologist (Clive Owen)
it starts with Alice and Dan meeting after a chance flirtation in the street (involving a taxi collision), then rolls forward in huge, sudden leaps over the course of four years, as we watch various relationships emerge, crash, burn, re-emerge, etc.
the structure is quite brilliant, actually, stemming from its origins as a play. we basically skip along from pivotal moment to pivotal moment, skipping over all of the actual sex and time spent in relationships to hit all the crucial conversations and confrontations, so that we don't see the various couplings themselves, just the moments when infidelities are initiated, covered up, revealed, etc.
essentially, we see only the turning points. as an example, we see Dan begging Anna to leave Larry to be with him, leave that scene with things between them basically unresolved and skip ahead a full year to see Anna confessing to Larry that she and Dan have been fucking each other behind his back since the night of the previous conversation. what amazes me about it is how well it works, how well Nichols and the cast are able to keep up the emotional intensity without burning out despite jumping straight from one emotionally-charged conversation straight into another and another...
the biggest criticisms that i have of the whole thing are the fact that one or two of the situations are pretty contrived, and it can be argued that some of the dialogue is a little stiff and forced. i would argue that that's more a reflection of characters who are themselves stiff and forced, people who are still putting up very well-rehearsed facades even in their most private moments, but i realize that that's going to be a bit of a stretch for some people.
it's gotten a lot of notice for the extremely graphic and raw language, and the ugly and selfish behavior on display. people say incredibly hurtful things to each other, often as the result of the other person outright begging them to say them. it's a violent, tense, nasty movie, but ultimately very cathartic. i can't recommend it highly enough. |
