Her Movie Reviews

We rented and watched a movie called Conversation with Other Women starring Helena Bonham Carter and Aaron Eckhart tonight. Those two actors alone is probably the only reason we picked this up, I mean Helena Bonham Carter is just an amazing actress (just watch her in Sweeney Todd, or my favorite movie, Fight Club) and Aaron Eckhart is pretty great too (Everyone knows him as Two-Face, but he especially shines in Thank You for Smoking). And after viewing the film, I’m still a little iffy on my review – it was just kind of an alright movie. I think what bothered me the most was also what I liked most stylistically about the movie. Throughout the film, the screen is split straight down the middle showing the two character’s perspectives and thoughts. While confusing at first, this allowed the movie to take what would have been a rather boring dialogue (the entire film is one very long dialouge) and give it depth. While a character is talking on one side, you get the back story filled in on the other. Yet the entire time you are focused on the current story and situation. Sounds confusing just trying to explain it. But as a film technique, I say it works perfect for this story. The entire movie is about two people, split apart and living in different worlds, that meet and talk. And the film literally shows you this. You not only get one side of the story or a hybrid, but both sides, both worlds simultaneously. One character may be talking while the other is remembering something from ten years ago. Or perhaps they are daydreaming of what should really happen, contemplating what the future might bring. So the approach of spliting the screen is a good idea, but seems like its also used as a cover-up.
For a film to be based solely the conversation of two people, that conversation better be really, really interesting. And while there are some good moments and the two actors did provide good performances, the story just didn’t seem to cut it. There were points throughout the movie where it seemed hard to stay concentrated on what they were saying and instead would rather get up and get a beer. The film while it had some funny moments and a bit of charm, was just dull and a bit predictable. I say, as a guy, this is a movie you could probably pass on.

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