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Conversations With Other Women

2006, Movie, NR, 84 mins

Conversations With Other Women: Review

CONVERSATIONS WITH OTHER WOMEN
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Director Hans Canosa's bittersweet chronicle of an encounter between two unnamed guests at a New York City wedding reception is a daring, feature-length experiment in "dual-frame" or "split-screen" filmmaking, in which the actors appear side by side in separate frames shot by two different cameras. The technique works surprisingly well, in large part thanks to clever editing and the sharp chemistry between Helena Bonham Carter and Aaron Eckhart, who are on one screen or the other for every moment. As his sister's wedding reception winds down, a Manhattan lawyer (Eckhart) downs his drink and screws up his courage to approach a solitary bridesmaid (Bonham Carter). He seems nervous and she acts bored, but as they begin to talk, it becomes clear that this strangers-when-we-meet act is a game they're playing and that they've known each other for quite a while. They're meeting for the first time in seven years, during which time she's moved from New York to London and married a successful cardiologist. After the painful breakup of his marriage, he's now dating a Broadway dancer just out of college. As they discuss failed marriages, growing older and the moment they first met 20 years earlier (the perfectly cast Nora Zehetner and Erik Eidem play their younger selves in brief, silent flashbacks), the full extent of their true feelings and the direction the evening is taking become crystal clear. Aside from a handful of films like Abel Gance's NAPOLEON (1927), Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey's CHELSEA GIRLS (1966) and Mike Figgis' TIMECODE (2000), few filmmakers have made such extensive use of the multiscreen format; most, like Brian De Palma (SISTERS, DRESSED TO KILL), have used it to generate suspense rather than to explore emotional distance or synchronicity. What might have doomed Canosa's project isn't the fact that watching an entire movie unfold simultaneously in two separate frames is so disorienting — it really doesn't take much getting used to — but that it could be perceived as a gimmick used to mask a stagy two-character play. And perhaps it is, but the gimmick works. It's a nice way of expressing the disconnect that divides them, occasionally overcome when the frames briefly sync up — and the fine acting and sexy chemistry between Bonham Carter and Eckhart make it work. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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