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Adult! Adult! Adult!
by Anne (movies profile)
Apr 27, 2008
124
of
136 people found this review helpful
What an adult film. I loved this. I picked it as my Fifth of July treat. Having seen it, I'm not ashamed to say I nearly wept at the conclusion of the film. But self-control won and I merely teared. And my throat got all tight. How did this one get in under the Hollywood radar? It's so unphoney, so sweet without being teased up, so honest without being brassy, so not Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal.
It has no sex but is 100% erotic at many moments.At first I thought it was going to exploit its Neil Simon-resembling theme from "Same Time Next Year" with Ellen Burstyn, but it didn't. That was good. It takes the premise-one-time lovers who never forgot each other-in another direction. This direction, or rather decision by the writers who included the actors Julie Delphy and Ethan Hawke-was uncanny. The camera follows them through the quaint, cobbled streets of Paris, and along the Seine River, as they bring each other up to date on their lovelives nine years after their one-night-stand. Paris, the romantic city, is like a character but it's a subdued role-a cafe here, scenic cathedral there. Delphy's bilingualism floats the translations gracefully.
Thee are flashbacks to the first movie, made with the same actors 10 years ago. But they were not really necessary. Sure it showed how each had aged, Mr. Hawke having lost a characteristic American boyishness, and Ms. Delphy having the multiple vulnerability of a thirty-something woman vs. an ingenue's. But the strength of the film lies in the protracted conversation the erstwhile lovers have travelling on foot, car, and ferry. It is the polar opposite of the Hollywood car chase. Instead of speed, crashes, flips over piers and screeching brakes, the two characters catalogue how life forces adults into all these actions in search of love and happiness. That's what's adult about this film. It's XXXXX-rated in terms of probing deep into the really hot stuff of life-making choices, settling, compromising one's desires, holding on in spite of letting go.
This film answers Langston Hughes' question: What happens to a dream deferred? |
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