Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here. I realize this film has been open for a couple of weeks in one or two cities already, but beginning next week, it opens a bit wider, and I thought you might like to hear a little something about this worthy endeavor featuring two of my favorite actors doing something you hardly see in film anymore: converse. They actually dare to have a dialogue, and what a dialogue it is.
Is revisiting a love affair with a past emotional connection ever a good idea? This and many other sticky relationship questions are posed in first-time feature director Hans Canosa's Conversations with Other Women, from a screenplay by Gabrielle Zevin. Despite two exceptional performances by Aaron Eckhart and Helena Bonham Carter, most people who write about this film are going to focus on its gutsy use of split-screen throughout the entire length of the film, often times with Eckhart on one side of the screen and Carter in the other, even when they are sitting talking to each other.
You might think that the technique would act to separate the characters and emotionally disconnect us from them, but Canosa's technique is more sophisticated than that. It's just as often that the conversing couple shares a single side of the screen, while we see a flashback or some other related image in the second frame. If Carter is discussing her husband (Philip Littell), we might get a flash at what's he's doing at that moment. If Eckhart brings up his new girlfriend (Cerina Vincent), we'll get a look at her. What's more interesting however, about the gimmick, is that we always see the faces of the actors, even when they are not the ones talking. It's almost like theater, in that the actors are always performing, whereas in a normal movie, editing or an over-the-shoulder shot would take us away from their face.
So what is this ridiculously handsome couple talking about? Themselves, naturally. They meet at a wedding reception (it turns out the wedding is of Eckhart's character's sister). Carter was a last-minute fill-in bridesmaid and clearly there was some hesitation about having her be a part of this wedding due to a connection to one of the other guests. I'm not ruining anything by telling you that she and Eckhart used to be involved many years earlier. Flashbacks to them as younger people (played by younger actors) establish this early on. As the film goes on, it reveals little by little the exact extend of their past relationship.
Much of the time, they are simply catching up and engaging in light flirtation. But the subtext is clear: they are feeling each other out, seeing if perhaps a one-time fling is worth the risk. She is one divorced and now remarried with kids; he too is divorced once and has since gone through a series of younger girlfriends. They were probably both content with their relationships, but the prospect of a rekindling (even a very temporary one) is incredibly strong.
Conversations is a dance, a sexy, funny, unnerving, and refreshing dance that sees the couple (neither character actually has a name) swooping in and out of each other's personal space and private thoughts. But whether or not the two end up in bed together isn't the ultimate end game of this film. For as much sexual tension as there is during the seduction process, there is an equal amount of angst and bitterness about what it was that pulled them apart in the first place. Not since Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise/Sunset films have I been this gripped by what is essentially two people talking, but in this film the sexual subtext seems more palpable.
Speaking of sex, Carter continues to turn me on with her live-wire performance here. Her hair alone could launch a thousand ships. And the combination of her and Eckhart--two actors not afraid to use their bodies to constant invade each other personal space when the seduction is in full swing--is exceptional. I'm not used to seeing Eckhart give such a multi-faceted offering. For all the testosterone clearly raging through his body during this film, he also gives us one of the most vulnerable turns I've ever seen him do. There's a scene in which he takes off his shirt, and Carter declares him "fat." He embarrassment and humility is right there on his face, and he's never seen more like a little boy before on screen.
Conversations with Other Women is a small film that a lot of people won't see, but I'd argue that the work will strike many a familiar chord among the millions of us who have ever had thought about what life would be like if an old flame came back into our lives. Are such scenarios safe or even possible? It doesn't matter. Even having the thoughts says something about you, and when all is revealed and played out in Conversations, I think you'll be impressed with both the acting and the skill of director Canosa. This is an impressive debut from him, as well as some of the best and most naturalistic work I've seen from either of the leads in a long time. This is a quietly devastating bit of brilliance that gives us a lot to think about regarding the power and strength of our hearts and our libidos.
Capone
