Interesting; different; somewhat worthwhile

Rating: 7/10 (1 August 2004)

This collection of eleven pieces is related primarily in that cigarettes and coffee are involved in each more or less prominently.

The pieces all have the quality of being improvisations (although certainly the one in which Cate Blanchett plays the 2 characters must've been more fully scripted).
The significance of the pieces, IMO, is in showing that within the smallest and most conventional of circumstances, sometimes profound truths, expositions of human traits, (or tantalizing mysteries) can be revealed or evoked.
They strike me as a series of études or experiments by the director and actors in reaching for those effects. Some, of course, succeed more than others and we viewers will not always agree on which ones are the winners.
I found it very interesting to see how much can be accomplished with such minimums of plot or preceding build up. I suspect the more you are a student of movies, especially their plots and narrative qualities (as well as acting to bring it to life), the more you'll find this of interest.