September 5 2007
Conversation(s) with Other Women
In a romantic drama, when a man and a woman with a formidable past cross paths at a wedding, you expect sparks to fly. But Conversation(s) with Other Women isn’t that kind of film. Instead, the pair play it aloof, with slight forays into aggression and honest questioning, a tack that draws them nearer and nearer to infidelity. Shot in split screen to illustrate the main characters’ two distinct and separate points of view, nothing in Conversation(s) with Other Women is easy: the past has a price, the present isn’t proof against temptation, and the future is not the playground of romantic ideals. Aaron Eckhart and Helena Bonham Carter skillfully portray a gamut of conflicted emotions as the estranged couple, but the film sometimes leans too heavily on the split screen gimmick when the focus should have been on the naked emotional honesty of its main players.
