Film Reviews

Conversations With Other Women

• Rating:
• Director: Hans Conosa
• Starring: Aaron Eckhart
• Details: US / 84mins (16).

At a wedding reception in New York, a man (Eckhart) flirts with a woman (Bonham Carter) in the corner of a room. At first it looks like they've just met, but as the conversation continues it becomes obvious that they were once lovers. The man is now married to a 22-year-old dancer, while she has been married twice; but this is one opportunity to get some closure on the relationship. Director Hans Conosa employs a split screen method to give the audience two perspectives on what is happening: his point of view versus hers. It's an interesting approach that allows both characters to be on screen for most of the film, while at the same time allows us to make up our own minds as to whose side we're on. What stops it from being gimmicky is that you're watching real people up on screen, real people who have made mistakes and may not be ashamed of it - it's who they are and they're comfortable with that. Eckhart and Bonham Carter know exactly what's needed of them and both are flawless in their depiction. Like Memento, it takes a while to get used to the style but once you're in, you're in for the long haul. Conosa and writer Gabrielle Zevin even go one further by showing us flashbacks to when they were together years before, and each flashback is given a different hue depending on whose perspective it is.

Review by Gavin Burke