Watching paint dry

Rating: 4/10 (8 May 2006)

The idea is good and so is the acting. What makes this film a supreme bore though, is the script. It is not that it is far-fetched and unrealistic, on the contrary, it is very realistic and many a viewer will immediately recognise the way the two protagonists, who may have lost sight of, but had not forgotten, one another, interact. From the tentative exploration of the emotional landscape in the Parisian café at the beginning of the film, to the more intimate open closing scene with its mixture of sexual tension and regret over missed opportunities and choices wrongly made, the script, filmed in apparent real time, stays very close to life. However, like some nineteenth-century realistic novels of which this film reminded me a little (e.g. George Gissing's New Grub Street), realism does not necessarily make for compelling viewing. Unfortunately, there is nothing in the film, not even in the acting, that lifts the everyday story to a higher plane so as to invest it with more meaning. It would seem that just like its protagonists, the director failed to make good use of an opportunity.