| Major Cast | |
|---|---|
| Karen Sillas | as Jackie Marsh |
| Tom Noonan | as Michael |
| MPAA Rating: | R |
| Production Companies: | Genre Pictures Good Machine |
| Distributors (USA): | Evergreen Entertainment Samuel Goldwyn Company |
| Language: | English |
| Release Date (US): | 9/09/1994 |
| Running time: | 91 minutes |
| Domestic Box Office: | $327,482 |
| Foreign Box Office: | $? |
| Production Budget: | $120,000 (Est.) |
| Crew | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PRODUCED BY | |||||||||
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| DIRECTED BY: Tom Noonan | |||||||||
| Writing Credits (WGA): | Tom Noonan | ||||||||
| Original Music: | Tom Noonan | ||||||||
| Cinematography: | Joe DeSalvo | ||||||||
| Casting: | Leonard Finger | ||||||||
| Set Decoration: | Andras Kanegson | ||||||||
| Costume Design: | Kathryn Nixon | ||||||||
Jackie arrives home from work to her New York apartment. She quickly pours a glass of wine, turns on some pop music. She tries on several dresses, finally settles on one. The windows give her views of neighbors. Most are in pairs — unlike her. One couple appears to have the TV tuned to a soap opera: a stark contrast to her solitary life. It develops she's been there five years alone. But tonight she has a dinner date.
It's Michael, a paralegal at the law firm where she is a secretary. He arrives a bit early, and they begin an awkward conversation. They have a talent for comments that can be taken wrong and failing to realize how the other takes them wrong, but they defuse the tension by laughing away the remark. They also each have a personal project they are working on. Michael dropped out of Harvard shortly before graduation because he says it stopped making sense to him. He says he's writing a book to be titled The Business of Justice. Later Jackie reads him one of the stories she's written: a bizarre, violent tale somewhat in the manner of the Brothers Grimm she calls "What Happened Was..." Michael is visibly disturbed by this, and as he looks around he sees dolls and other things that suggest there might be a real underpinning to the story.
But he covers it up and praises the story. They switch from wine to brandy, and later there's a romantic interlude. It's at this point that Michael gets cold feet. Jackie, crushed, orders him out. He stands there clumsily trying to apologize, finally admits he left Harvard because he couldn't take the pressure and is doing no writing; he just comes home and watches science shows on TV. They part, leaving the viewer to conclude that both will remain mired in their lonely lives.
Both actors do a good job. They have no trouble keeping the film alive all by themselves through sharp dialog, gestures, and facial expressions. They give us a poignant picture of two broken people managing to cope with the bad hand life has dealt them by repressing the hurt and sleepwalking through dead-end jobs.
There are things in the film to quibble about. One is Micheal's description of microwaves (in an oven) as "low-frequency energy." Another is the size of Jackie's Manhattan apartment: it's hard to imagine a secretary's salary covering the rent. And I would expect that people who've drunk as much wine and brandy as they have would be at least a little tipsy.1 But, really, I mention these only to dismiss them.2
My Rating:
8 out of 10
Capsule review: Two lonely office workers get together for an evening. They clumsily begin to make contact, but their uncertainties rise to the fore and doom their relationship. The actors convey these personal tragedies with subtlety and poignancy. This hard-to-find film is well worth watching.
| IMDB Rating: 7.0 | Raters: 1,062 |
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