BEFORE: Between both jobs I've been working straight through for the last five days, but now the theater is closing down for a week of repairs, and the Nets are going on their last big road-trip of the season, I think. The circus is coming in to the stadium, but I don't get to work that event - so I'm free for like the next 10 days, unless I can find a new, quick temp job. I guess I'll look for one tomorrow, I can't do it today, one last basketball game tonight, then 2 weeks where I don't have to go there. There's work coming up at the theater, it's just a week and a half away - it would be fine, except there's nothing new on TV except the Winter Olympics, and I'm not really into that. C'est la vie.
Laura Dern carries over from "Certain Women".
THE PLOT: At a retreat in Morocco, a woman meets a young man whose acquaintanceship evolves into an intoxicating, life-altering love affair.
AFTER: Well, here we go, the first simple romance film of February so far - relatively speaking of course, because romance is never simple. But no serial killers tonight, no pregnant dogs, no porn stars moving in next door, no four-hour drive back home to Livingston after class. Just one love triangle to deal with, but as soon as that gets settled, I think we'll be moving straight on to the happy ending bit. Honestly, it's a relief - however, there is a downside, it's a double-edged sword, because now this film looks rather simplistic by comparison. No, no, I can't miss the serial killers or the porn stars, they were all just there to confuse things and get in the way of love. We're dealing with people at an author's retreat in Morocco - and we all know what happens in Morocco stays in Morocco, right? Oh, that's not a thing.
Successful writer Katherine Loewe has been invited to this retreat, and she's really just looking for some quiet time alone to finish her latest novel. She's struggling with writer's block because her personal life is getting in the way, her partner (boyfriend? husband?) of 14 years, a sculptor, is asking her to move out, which she promises to work on, or at least think about working on, as soon as the retreat is over. Geez, you'd think if she has that much money from writing, she can just buy her own house and pay some movers to bring all her stuff there while she's out of the country, then once she gets back, she can start her new life. But I guess it's just not THAT simple, is it? Romance is never simple, and break-ups doubly so.
Meanwhile, a younger author, Lily Kemp, has arrived at the same retreat with her boyfriend Owen, who is a finance manager or an equity trader or something. Doesn't matter, except that he's involved in a deal to buy some land because it has coal on it (under it?) and he promised the seller he could stay on in some capacity, and his business partners are against that and FOR screwing the seller out of any future earnings, completely. Owen is not happy about how this deal is about to go down, but what can he do, he's in Morocco where there's barely any cell phone signal. Anyway, Lily is an author who's written her first novel, and she's a big fan of Katherine, who's written many novels. BUT Lily also tends to belittle Owen because he doesn't know much about literature, and they argue all the time, so come on, do I really need to paint you a picture here? It's obvious from the start that this relationship is doomed, but THEY have to realize that, and it's going to take some time.
It's also fairly obvious that Owen and Katherine are perfect for each other, they meet when they both want to go into town at the same time, though Katherine is still focused on her novel and barely notices the hunky man right in front of her. Give her some time, too, we're going to get there. As the retreat wears on, Owen and Katherine keep ending up alone together, and having more and more intimate conversations, while Owen and Lily are spending less and less time together and therefore realize that they don't really share the same interests, they don't want to hang out with the same people, and they have different attitudes about drugs, alcohol and fidelity. So, umm, what DO they have in common, then? Exactly.
Lily keeps coming back to the hotel room half-naked and high - and Owen makes a pass at Katherine, only she declines because of their age difference. Age ain't nothing but a number, though, and finally Owen offers to take her on a road trip, really, anywhere that isn't this stuffy retreat, and so that's what they do. Owen ends up quitting his job because it feels like the right thing to do, anyway his co-workers are a bunch of dicks, and nothing really is standing in the way of Owen and Katherine getting together BUT then her manuscript is stolen (who walks around with the ONLY copy of their next novel in their purse?) and Katherine realizes that she let herself get distracted by this new romance, and she wasn't focused on protecting what's really important, which is her work. She leaves and goes back to New York, to put her new life together and start the next book over again.
Well, New York City is a big place, but people still manage to find each other there, or bump into each other there, so there's still a chance for these crazy kids if they're willing to reach out and try again. So there's that - they can still find love in a hopeless place, and maybe she lost THAT book but she can write a different one, all about finding love with a younger man at a writer's retreat, maybe. Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes, Billy Joel once sang. Actually the first song that came up on shuffle play for me today, after watching this was "Don't Answer Me" by the Alan Parsons Project, and perhaps those lyrics are more appropriate:
"When we were living in a dream world / Clouds got in the way
We gave it up in a moment of madness / And threw it all away
It ain't enough that we meet as strangers / I can't set you free
So will you turn your back forever / On what you mean to me?
Don't answer me, don't break the silence, don't let me win
Don't answer me, stay on your island, don't let me in.
Run away and hide from everyone
Can you change the things we've said and done?"
I think it's really easy to root for Katherine here, over Lily - partially this is because the character of Lily is so terrible. She's got "artist brain" after writing just ONE novel, and she's entitled and self-centered and quite horrible to Owen. I mean, he obviously doesn't fit in at a writer's retreat, so why keep pointing that out? Why bring him in the first place to somewhere he's not going to be happy? And then there's the fact that the actress is so cold and emotionless - at first I thought she was Madchen Amick, but of course she's too young. She kind of reminds me of Lily Collins, of course without the English accent and any acting skill whatsoever.
Directed by Susannah Grant (director of "Catch and Release")
Also starring Liam Hemsworth (last seen in "Cut Bank"), Diana Silvers (last seen in "Ma"), Younes Boucif, Adriano Giannini (last seen in "Swept Away"), Rachida Brakni, Shosha Goren, Heeba Shah, Jean-Erns Marie-Louise, Gustav Dyekjaer Giese, Michelle Greenidge (last seen in "Venom: Let There Be Carnage"), Francesco Martino, Tao Guo, Muhammad Abdullah Arabi, Yahya Et Tonia, Sami Fekkak, Naoufal Sabri, Halima Ouhamou, Mohamed Askour, Adbelmalek Sadok, Rita Moak, Sundra Oakley, Arthur Clark, Bellina Logan (last seen in "Jacob's Ladder"), Quintin Mims, Herbert Russell (last seen in "Boiler Room"), Nadia Kazar, Dillon Lane (last heard in "The Guilty"), Ada Mogilevsky,
RATING: 6 out of 10 novelists in a very tough game of Charades
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