2010 romantic dramedy
Rating: 15/20
Plot: Two awkward people meet, fall in love, and try to overcome overwhelming introversion to make the whole thing work out. Meanwhile, they’re mutual friends are having marriage problems.
What a sweet movie this is. And the central message, something about the amount of work that love takes, is so easy to connect with with the simple relationships of these complex characters. This is based on a play which makes me wonder, like I always do when watching a movie based on a play, why we even have plays anymore. This was the only movie that Hoffman directed, and I’m most impressed with how simply he decided to tell this story. I’m not sure I would have had the seemingly endless and pretty silly hookah-smoking scene or a reggae sing-a-long. And I’m not sure about those dreadlocks. But there are a few scenes–namely a great montage juxtaposing the swimming and cooking lessons with shots of the married couple and the climax of the dinner party that really manages to pack a punch while being strangely comical at the same time–where he really nailed it. The love interest is played by Amy Ryan who I think I only know as Michael Scott’s girlfriend on The Office. There’s something awkwardly sexy about her, and although her acting isn’t always perfect in this, she’s certainly helped by being around Hoffman. But when she’s great in this, she’s really really great. I liked the chemistry, just the right amount of “off,” and there are so many little details–glances after their first “date,” for example–that make this relationship something you really want to root for. I also liked this almost fragile quality that the romantic scenes had. “I’m not ready yet for penis penetration,” alliterative and weirdly hot. “I like how you touch me, how you barely touch my skin.” And the “overpower” scene, for whatever reason, had me on the edge of my seat. Of course, a Philip Seymour Hoffman near-sex scene that was threatened could have very well ruined the Fleet Foxes for everybody. There’s a great final shot in this movie, and it’s hard to determine whether I’m supposed to be happy or sad at the end of this. I guess I’ll be happy for the abstract and sad for human beings. Whatever that means.
