Today I’m getting some movies out of the way that I might have watched a long time ago. For whatever reason, I either thought the movies needed more time to marinate or I thought holding them for a bit would be better. In all cases, neither of those things turned out to be true. First, I’m starting with this tale about a married couple (Sam Worthington and Keira Knightley) separated for a night when the husband goes on a business trip and both of them face temptation when her old boyfriend shows up and his sexy co-worker (Eva Mendes) reveals feelings for him.
What Works: I can’t really remember. I saw this movie months ago and don’t remember anything particularly striking about it. I DO remember not trying to hang myself while watching it, so it must not have been that bad. I count movies that don’t make me attempt suicide as jumping the bare minimum requirement for being successful.
What Doesn’t Work: The movie spends a lot more time with the Keira Knightley and her “sexy” old French boyfriend subplot than it does with the Sam Worthington and Eva Mendes subplot. I could tell that the movie had a female director (I usually can’t) because it becomes so obvious that she sympathizes more with Keira Knightley than with Sam/Eva. You really get the sense that if Keira were to cheat with her French ex, the director/writer would consider it understandable, but that Sam/Eva cheating is just sleazy motel room lust and home wrecking.
What I Would Have Done Differently: Given BOTH temptations equal depth and screen time. By stacking the deck so much, it made me feel bored with the exhaustive screen time given to Keira/her ex and uninvolved with the few scenes given to Sam/Eva. Since the director didn’t seem to think Sam and Eva were all that interesting as characters or that their flirtations could be about anything other than sex (I truly felt he was more compatible with her than Keira, and she treated him better as well), I felt disengaged in whether they would-or-wouldn’t-cheat. A better and more curious movie would have really drawn me into both story lines.