Conversations with Other Women

Last night at 2 p.m., the film Conversations with Other Women ended.

When a man and woman flirt with each other at a wedding reception, the sexual tension seems spontaneous. As they break from the party to a hotel room, the flirtation turns into a night filled with passion and remorse.

Here’s the situation: Two people in their late 30s – a tuxedoed wedding guest identified only as Man (Aaron Eckhart) and a bridesmaid known only as Woman (Helena Bonham Carter) – strike up a conversation that lasts all night. Are they strangers? Do they they recognize (or think they recognize) each other from years ago? Did they know each other at one time, but one or the other has forgotten or is pretending to forget?

“Conversations With Other Women,” written by Gabrielle Zevin and directed by Hans Canosa, is a bittersweet meditation on the inevitable adjustments of adulthood. These two see themselves poised uncomfortably between youth and imagined decrepitude (“The memory starts to go after 40”), trying to find ways to reconcile their regrets over vanished opportunities and unfulfilled expectations with the reality of life in the here and now. You might think of it as an older adult cousin of “Before Sunrise” or “Before Sunset” – a loquacious flirtation, a witty sparring match and a mutually cathartic confession.

听到过很多人赞赏Helena的演技。 她在爱丽丝漫游仙境里面的红心皇后形象深入人心，我一度把她的演技跟Jonny Depp的的剪刀手爱德华放入同列：特异的气质总是跟怪人很搭。

不过这部戏让我真正见识到褪去怪异元素后，她演绎的一个平常的将近四十的女人形象。

The man says: “Time really can’t move in two directions.” Of course, this is not true at all, and “Conversations With Other Women” is a movie that sets out to demonstrate why. In our minds, and in our hearts, time is hardly linear or unidirectional. Visit your parents and you’re instantly a child again, and if you all live long enough, time begins to curl back on itself and they become your children. Or run into a certain old girlfriend or boyfriend and you may enter a disconcerting time warp between then and now and some shared future you once envisioned, but that never came to pass.

Aaron像一只浪漫的金毛犬。表忠心的情节真让人心疼，海姨又为何如此决绝？过去的美好就在眼前，恍若重现。

似乎上段婚姻对她的打击巨大，出了严重的车祸也没有通知狗，想必经过长时间的沉沦后来move on，并让第二任心脏医生用他高超的医术缝补了她破碎的心。然而如果一切顺遂的话，她为什么要从伦敦飞到纽约？我有一个猜想，she cares about her husband and family, but nothing really matters. 而对于狗来说他还在疑问” Why is it so hard to be happy?” 想要happy必然也会心伤，但是她已经心死（缝缝补补了还能用，只是not the same, can’t go back.)

另外真的很难想象狗的职业设定是一个律师。

Why the movie is titled Conversations with other women?

At Sundance, some viewers and critics wondered about the title: Why is it “Conversations With Other Women,” when the movie is about one man and one woman? The answer lies in the way the movie plays with time, imagination and memory. Is the 38-year-old you the same person as the 22-year-old you? Might the 22-year-old and the 38-year-old (and who knows how many others) exist simultaneously inside the same mind and body? And how well can you really know another person – and for how long, given that people are always changing? There may be only one “Woman” credited in the movie, but she’s also several “other women” at any given moment.