Book of Love

This is another poor concept indie film with songs that distract tossed in. Songs with untalented voices. The film's style gets in its own way. Each scene is way too long. This is the result of a cheap and in-experienced director who is afraid to do editing. Almost every scene needs 1/3 to 1/2 of it cut out. This is not a genre, this is simply bad film-making. Total over use of songs, that makes you reach for the fast-forward button. The story comes across like a half-baked 5 minute short film, with no real ending to it. Instead of focusing on the story line first and make it great, it was simply made longer and the result is very boring. When John Cleese talks about writing the great 1/2 hour Fawlty Towers, he and co-writer Connie Booth spent six week writing each show. They spent 2-3 weeks on just one the plot. This film is totally absent of this kind of attention to deal, hoping that the audience will somehow be confused with the dragged out scenes thinking it is some sort of genre. You find yourself asking yourself what this story is to be about or if there even is a story. The characters, even the husband and wife barely bond together. The two women, they don't come across as a couple really either. When you take a bad story, bad music, bad direction, bad editing and the wrong casting, you end up with a film like this.

a bitter one. because , the film propose a provocative moral lesson. correct, not real original, but seductive. a meet between a young man and a couple. the storm, the revelation of crisis, the only reasonable choice. and Cambodgia. not the most convincing performances and a simple story. and few hot scenes. a secret. and the answer who escapes the film from platitude. without be an admirer of it, "Book of love" is a reasonable good film. for questions, for Gregory Smith work, for the exploration, in beautiful manner, of the temptation, sin and the force of secret.

I saw this at a Slamdance Best Of screening in the East Village. I go to all their films there. This was an intelligent, quiet film with really great acting from all three leads. I liked it at first because it didn't try to push any messages or morals on me. Then I started to think about it afterward, and as time went by, it impressed me more and more. It seems to be about a lot of important things. It made me question how people behave and how I judge people. I hate to use the word 'haunting,' it sounds like a cliché, but the film did end up haunting me. I went out and rented other films with these actors (see Francis O'Conor in Mansfield Park!), and also found one by the director, a short called O Beautiful, which is also very good and (here I go again) 'haunting.' So, see if you have a chance.

First things first. So far this film has about an average vote of 3.5/10 stars on IMDb, which I think is kind of surprising, because it's not that bad. I expected about a 5 or 6 rating. Yes, it's muddled and kind of pointless at times, and the ending is pretentiously ambiguous. But as a character study -- despite it's flaws -- it is a rather effective one that manages to explore the love triangle between two older people and a younger teenager.

The movie's casual treatment of sexuality involving adults and a 15-year-old is kind of disturbing at first, but kudos to Alan Brown (director and writer) for getting away with it. He handles it right - it never nears exploitation - and as a result the story doesn't seem cheap and tacky like "Intimacy." However my problems lie with the script itself. It's got too many repetitive moments and some scenes are kind of wandering and make you say, "Huh?" The performances are alright. The only actor I recognized in the cast was Gregory Smith ("Small Soldiers"), playing a fifteen-year-old, which is kind of silly because he looks about 20 (at the least). I suppose they had problems with younger casting because of the love scenes between the leads.

Essentially the story centers around three people in a small town - a 30-something high school teacher, his wife, and a local kid - and how their friendship soon turns into something else. The kid has an affair with the wife, the husband finds out, and hatred forms.

It's an interesting movie because it's daring and different, but it has its flaws - a stronger script, better cast and more responsible and experienced director would result in a much better picture.

A young married couple befriends a lonely teenage boy in an ice cream shop. As the friendship blossoms, romantic feelings develop between the wife and the boy. It's a provocative story with contemporary relevance. Withy a backdrop of New Age philosophy "Book Of Love" explores the impact of this unsettling romance on the three individuals.

The acting of the three leads is fine. But the screenplay is thin. Even with a runtime of just 83 minutes, there's just not that much substance. Director Alan Brown tries to draw a parallel between the wife's mistakes in judgment and the mistakes of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, a parallel that seems contrived at best. Further, the wife's involvement with the boy lacks a motivational basis, given her current marriage. And her behavior seems way too casual to be credible.

Nominated for an award at the Sundance Film Festival, "Book Of Love" at least tries to do something daring. It is low-key, and not at all exploitative. The background music is interesting. And, as a low budget film, the production values are credible. On the other hand, the script probably does not have enough conflict or plot complication to engage most viewers. The story seems too direct and too linear to be compelling.