surprisingly good

Rating: 9/10 (26 March 2005)

I can't express how brave it is to make a movie with no action, no sex scene, not even a kiss, and trust that it can still be appealing and even a masterpiece. This entire movie is a one hour and twenty minute long conversation -- that's IT. And yet it's entrancing; I was never bored or impatient, I felt like I knew the characters myself by the end of the film. It's not perfect; nine years is a long, long time to maintain an attraction, however deep, that only had one night to develop. But, I'm willing to suspend my disbelief for the sake of watching these two characters reveal themselves with such subtlety and grace. The ending was absolutely perfect for the tone of the film -- if it had ended in the expected way, I would have liked the film far less. As it is, I can only once again emphasize how daring it was for the people involved in this film to make it exactly as it is in a time when movies increasingly rely on car chases, guns, bombs, and ever more explicit sex to attract their audiences.