Z/Web

This is a fantastic film. They had a free HBO preview this past weekend and this was one of the films I recorded. Though neither the title or the plot summary sounded familiar, I saw it had Kate Winslet and Jennifer Connelly and that sounded interesting and I didn’t realize which film it was. This was actually a film I really wanted to see when it came out, mostly because I’d heard such rave reviews of actor Jackie Earle Haley’s performance (warranted). The description of the film about two married people having an affair with each other didn’t interest me much, but I must say, this is exactly the kind of film about that I’ve wanted my whole life to see. In most films when people have an affair it’s all about the sex or the illicitness of it — we never get a picture of how the affair started, the hows and whys, the doubts, the longings, the self-denial that you’re doing anything wrong. This film does it in an awesome way: the affair isn’t consummated until halfway through the film: prior to that we are learning about the characters. It’s a realistic look at the way an affair blossoms, by decent people who wouldn’t normally be tempted by such a thing.

The other great thing about this film — my favorite thing, in fact — is the narration and tone. The narration sets this up as though this were a “Wild Kingdom” episode and we’re studying the human species in its natural habitat (in this case, a modern suburban neighborhood). The narration is perfect: not overdone, but frequent enough to keep the tone, and always done to provide us with valid insight into what characters are thinking. The narration empowers every scene, it doesn’t distract or annoy or provide boring exposition: it’s more like analysis and commentary.

Of course with the affair not getting hot and heavy until halfway through the film, there needs to be some other stuff happening, and that’s where this film becomes fascinating: mixed in the middle of this affair we have the entire neighborhood on alert because a “sexual deviant” (Jackie Earle Haley) has just been let out of prison and is moving back into the neighborhood (he’s moving in with his mother). Like everything else in this film, even this is not cut and dry: the deviant’s character is sympathetic and tragic, as is his doting mother, and we’re kept at edge over whether or not the public’s outrage is justified or not. The deviant’s story weaves in and out of the couple having the affair, and two seemingly unrelated events actually have a lot in common: tragedy, accusation without proof, guilt, etc. It’s fascinating.

When I started watching this film I thought I would only watch a few minutes as it was long (2+ hours), but I was hooked from the first scene which was electric with tension and import and I just could not stop watching until the film was finished. Amazing. Highly recommended. Not always easy to watch, but definitely emotionally moving and intellectually riveting.