A nice Saturday night movie to watch at home. Melaine Laurent would have been a great, silent film actress.
Despite the art-house pretension that the film is life/death/romance, in a lot of ways - at the core - it's just one in the line of male-fantasy (i.e. Leaving Las Vegas, Greenberg) romantic films. A beautiful angel comes to save the broken-down soul, loving him unconditionally, and he keeps pushing her away.
It's Halloween in Los Angeles. A depressed Ewan MacGregor - dressed as Freud - reluctantly attends a house party. He looms in the corner, introspective, grief-stricken eyes. Despite his anti-social behavior, a quirky, soft -faced female guest, dressed as a dapper-suited man approaches him, pursues him. She has laryngitis. They write harmless notes to one another. They drink. They dance.
MacGregor leaves the party. Regret starts to creep in. She comes running after him. They spend the rest of the night together. When she takes off her costume wig and business suit, flowing blond locks tumble past her shoulders. It is the irresistibly charming, beautiful French actress Melanie Laurent.
Nice score MacGregor! Wish it always turned out that way.
Additional notes:
The mother/son flashback scenes stand out as the weakest part of the film. MacGregor, Laurent, & Plummer turn in nice performances, and hold the screen.
With the weightiness of the the material, I thought there would be a larger, more manipulative emotional pull by the end. And was ready for it. But the anchor never dropped.
A touching piece if you're in the mood.
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