Dir. Massy Tadjedin,USA/France, 2010, 93 mins
Cast: Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington, Eva Mendes, Guillaume Canet
Review by Carol Allen
This directorial debut by Iranian/American screenwriter Massy Tadjedin is a well made and acted grown up film about contemporary relationships and particularly the issue of fidelity, which is in some ways reminiscent of Patrick Marber’s Closer. It may be a bit “wordy” in the European literary tradition for some tastes but the dialogue is beautifully written and the characters interesting and well drawn.
Knightley and Worthington play Joanna and Michael Reed, four years happily married, no children, interesting careers and living in a smart loft apartment in New York. Their marital boat is rocked one night, when they go to a party given by one of Michael’s work colleagues and Joanna notices a moment between him and his co-worker Laura (Mendes), which arouses her suspicions that there is something going on there. The following morning Sam goes off on a business trip to Philadelphia, where Laura will be present. That same day Joanna bumps into an old flame, Alex (Canet), whom she knew several years ago in Paris and with whom the sparks are still smouldering. For the rest of the story we follow Joanna and Michael as they both in these two situations struggle with the conflict between lust and fidelity.
Knightley at only aged 26 has an impressive track record going back to childhood. Good though her recent work has been, it’s interesting to note that here she returns to the charming spontaneity she showed in her breakthrough film Bend It Like Beckham. She is delightful, even when the character is being slightly annoyingly over analytical. It is also reassuring to notice that, beautiful though she is, she has slightly imperfect and therefore natural teeth, in contrast to the dazzlingly white, unnaturally even set flashed by Hollywood groomed co-star Mendes. Knightley and Worthington totally convince as a couple, while French actor/director Canet brings a Gallic charm and confidence to his role. The scenes of their encounter in New York have a metropolitan sophistication and sparkle about them, which is enhanced by a sequence where they have dinner with Alex’s publisher friend Truman, played by Griffin Dunne in a manner that is also somewhat European in style. In contrast the somewhat awkward and inelegant encounter between Michael and Laura is appropriately a more coarse grained, prosaic and rather sad piece of “will they or won’t they” adultery.
Knightley and Worthington are not asked to make any attempt to play American and disguise their respective English and Australian origins, which works well for both the characters. Worthington’s Aussie straightforward, blokish quality works particularly well for his role. However in view of the fact that Tadjedin is careful to give us the background on Joanna and Alex’s relationship in Paris, it would have been interesting to discover how an Englishwoman and an Australian came to meet at college in America. It is though a small criticism of what is otherwise a well observed and perceptive piece of drama.
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