In Maybe (Maybe Not), Robert Fulghum observes: "There's quite a crowd in here with us. A child and its parents. A wise old person. A mechanic, demons, a fool, a scientist, comedian, musician, dancer, athlete, magician, professor, a Romeo, censor, police officer, fire fighter. . . . I can fully relate to the occasional stories in the tabloid about multiple personalities." Most of us are not used to thinking of ourselves as complex and complicated characters, but we are. And every time we encounter someone with whom we've been intimate, we have to deal with the fact that he or she knows aspects of our past and our character traits. It is both reassuring and disconcerting to be known in this way.
That feeling is at the core of Conversation(s) with Other Women, an unconventional love story. The clever and nuanced screenplay by Gabrielle Zevin delves into the many layers of a past relationship between a man and a woman who meet at a wedding reception. Director Hans Canosa tries to convey the fragmented nature of their encounter through the technique of a split screen. For them, as for many of us, life has been shredded into bits and pieces and the challenge is to rearrange the memories and reformulate the present moment as best they can.
A middle-aged man (Aaron Eckhart) begins flirting with a woman (Helena Bonham Carter) in the corner of a room. At first, it seems as if they have just met but then it becomes clear that they knew each other in an intimate relationship over 20 years ago. The man is now married to a 22-year-old dancer but is not happy. He is still looking for something more. He fondly remembers how he first met and kissed the woman. She recalls their first encounter with more clarity of the details, and he's embarrassed. The woman has married a doctor and is mother to his children. She, too, is missing something but doesn't quite know what it is.
They leave the party and retire to a hotel room for sex. She says he has gotten fatter, and he reacts badly. They uncover another layer in their relationship. He keeps going back to the past and what she was like then. She responds: "I'm not interested in other women." The words linger in the air. No matter how enchanting or powerful it was, we can never relive a magic moment from long ago. Over time we have changed and added fresh complications to our personhood.
Conversation(s) with Other Women delves into the ways in which time transforms love relationships and makes it difficult to recapture what once was so cherished. Letting go is a part of middle-age, and this movie explores that bittersweet truth with clarity and emotional clout.
