we're happy, aren't we?

Rating: Null/10 (2 September 2011)

Dan makes eye contact with Alice on the street. They fall in love and end up living together, through a brief detour to the emergency room. Larry and Anna are the victims of a practical joke, a potentially illicit encounter becoming acute public embarrassment. But Larry's rough charm wins through and Anna is won over. Or is she?
Patrick Marber's screenplay of his own play wears its stage origins on its sleeve. Scenes take place in one room, with little or no inter-cutting between locations. People talk a lot. But it works, because the emotions seem authentic, and the observations acute.
The main device is not to lead up to and reveal major decisions, but to join the action when the characters are dealing with the consequences of that decision. You have to pay attention as often you find yourself playing catch-up with the characters.
Julia Roberts is as impressive as she has ever been as depressive Anna. Larry figures out she can only be happy by making herself unhappy, and that is the key to his victory. It is the antagonism between the two males that drives the drama. "I could take him in a scrap" says Larry, and his confidence is not misplaced. Natalie Portman as Alice is woman with a past, one she is forced to re-visit when Dan's cruelty reaches its zenith. She has her own battle with misanthropic Dan to sort out.
You can see why the actors were attracted to this - Marber's script calls on them to act and react, to the petty and stupendous cruelties that all of us recognise from our own lives. They do the material ample justice. Nichols directs unobtrusively, perhaps pipped for a medal here by writer, actors, and editor.
Compulsive viewing, though one to watch with the love of your life.