Yes

I was tempted to do this comment in iambic pentameter and rhyming couplets, but somebody from the "New Yorker" has already done it, and of course I would have run the risk of doing an even worse job than Sally Potter has.

Not that this is such a bad film – it's different from the normal run of romantic comedies. At times it becomes quite didactic as "He" asserts the Muslim philosophical position and "She" replies for the secular West. The dying Ulster communist Aunt's story is also an unusual ingredient. Even the more conventional elements – the alienated husband (Sam Neil), the empty affluence, the troubled teenager (Stephanie Leonidas), are deftly handled. I say "romantic comedy" because the film ends like one, but it could have equally ended as tragedy. "He" and "She" are both missing something, and find it in each other, only to discover that love does not always conquer all. One could blow one's brains out. But then one can always high-tail it to Cuba instead.

This is a very artful piece of film-making with some very clever camera-work and adroit use of music, but we still have a very ordinary story. Joan Allen as "she" does manage to transcend the material and make us care about her character, which is quite an achievement as the character is a beautiful middle-class Irish-American ice princess scientist stuck in a dead marriage whose only real passion is in what's at the other end of her microscope. It's interesting how she manages to appear so radiant, 10 years younger in fact, after her first roll in the hay with "He".

"He", the French-Armenian actor Simon Abkarian, comes across to start with as a bit of a cliché, the handsome charming feckless foreigner. He is not helped by the aforesaid iambic pentameter, which was not designed for foreigners speaking English. He has to utter one of the most insincere-sounding pick-up lines I have ever heard: "If I was your husband I would be so jealous of your beauty I would not leave your side". As we see more of him, a serious side emerges, an educated Muslim who sees a lot wrong with the West and not much with his own society, despite its inability to live in peace. This he blames on the West. However, the dialectic is sidelined by the plot line, which as suggested above, winds up on a Cuban beach.

The novel "Orlando" by Virginia Woolf was a pretty weird property, and Sally Potter produced a weird and wonderful movie from it. Her "Tango Lesson" was semi-autobiographical, well produced and absorbing. This movie is ambitious – "let's see if we can make a romantic comedy about the clash of civilizations and the meaning of life" and although visually fascinating it not surprisingly doesn't quite make it. It has its moments though – Maid Shirley Henderson's disquisitions on the nature of dirt to the camera, Sam Neil's guitar miming to an Eric Clapton number and the restaurant orgasm to name a few. Sally Potter still has the ability to find a different angle on existence.

I had the chance to see Yes when it in premiered at the Telluride Film Festival. I had no idea what to expect and that in turn was a good thing. Expectations more often than not ruin our perceptions of a film and that would be my advice for anyone seeing this film for the first time, do not expect to know what you are getting into. With that said, I believe this was a marvelous film because it was able to balance the seriousness of its subject matter with a nice touch of humor. This definitely was not a film for everybody and I say this because it does require one to think when viewing it and as we all know, a lot of people go to the movies to escape, not to think. Right away, the viewer will realize this is not your normal film simply by the dialogue, it was written in iambic pentameter and rhyming couplets. The rhyming of the dialogue might be a turn off for some, but I found it to be quite pleasing and very humorous almost in a mature Dr. Seuss sort of way. Anyone that is a writer will appreciate the time and care and difficulty that went into writing this script. Regarding the content of this film, I will only say that everything is not always as it appears and we interpret what we see...if you can appreciate this kind of thought, then see this film. If I had to compare it to another film, which I shouldn't do, I'd say American Beauty or Donnie Darko. On a technical note, I had the chance to talk to Mrs. Potter and her producer Mr. Sheppard afterwards and they informed me that it cost less than 4 million to make this film which makes it all the more magnificent.

Sally Potter has in my view made a masterpiece.

To challenge every issue from racism to religion to cultural difference, let alone to the big question, the what's it all about question, and all in one film is astounding but to do this with such daring, the rhyming verse, structure, cinematography, musical score is nothing short of genius. Joan Allen is remarkable as She. Her beauty is second only to her delivery of the some of the most intelligent and profound verse that I have ever heard. Shiela Hancock's death speech sits on its own as an inspired piece of writing. There are so many great moments in this film, there is no point in trying to list them, but do look out for the wine bar scene!

Potter has reminded me why film is great.

Thank you Sally Potter.

The most imaginative narrative film in the last two years? Better middle-aged romance than Something's Gotta Give and Must Love Dogs? YES! In Yes, Sally Potter, having established herself as not one of the usual directing boys with her wildly creative Orlando, has her characters speak in iambic pentameter, which, if I remember my English literature classes well enough, was the style used by Shakespeare because it approximates ordinary speech.

Why use iambic pentameter in a contemporary film? Actually, if it weren't for the rhyming, most of us would not identify the meter beyond just beautiful cadence by professional actors. But because this is an intricate tale of a mature woman in a lifeless marriage finding a man who gives her a reason to be happy, the meter adds grace and elegance to what neo-cons could label as "sin." The arguments about the beauty of life and the human body, along with a maid discoursing on dirt, are made to sound like philosophical discourse by Plato at his nearest park.

When Allen's "She" discovers through her aunt that we want our whole lives "things we don't need," the film takes another direction from love to a communistic conclusion about wealth, in Cuba no less. That's what's exciting about Potter's agenda: She seems to have so many thoughts about birth, love, and death that the film bursts with the energy of a first date with an interesting, very verbal, very sensual human being. When "She" has her date in a restaurant, "He," her new love, stimulates her under the table in an almost elegant takeoff on the "Harry Meets Sally" scream.

That "She' was born in Belfast and "He" in Beirut is Potter's way of universalizing the clashes our culture seems to proliferate these days. The director could be faulted for trying too much, for being too heavy handed in her metaphors, but better that overreaching than no reaching at all.

What Potter's aim is with the maid who comments to the audience about the universe of microbes beneath a seemingly clean sheet is a challenge, as are the multiple times service people such as cooks and waiters address us. I suspect Potter is emphasizing the need to pay attention to the little things of life, including marginal workers. Indeed, at one point the need to live each moment fully stands front and center. I can agree with that.

The eternal "Yea" overcomes the "Nea."

Yes is possibly the most beautiful film I have ever seen.

Sally Potter began work on this film on September 12, 2001. The impact of the previous day's events can be felt throughout the film as He and She try to make sense of their lives and discuss both the meaning of life and the world around them.

Told in rhyming couplets, the comparison to Shakespeare is natural. Potter claimed that she would be thrilled if even one line of hers was as good as the Bard's. I believe much of her work is on par with his. The text is both witty and intelligent and addresses a plethora of modern day issues of conscience. The iambic pentameter flows very naturally throughout the film and is never a distraction - only a credit to the abilities of the writer! As with any Shakspearean production, the feelings and inner turmoil of the main characters are central.

The cinematography is excellent. The film is simply beautiful to watch and behold. As if the images were not enough, the music provides a perfect complement to all that goes on on screen.

Go see this movie. It is unlike any other. Everyone shines!