Buna! Ce faci?

"Hello! How are you?" deals with several main topics - growing up of a teenager, crisis of middle-aged people, boredom in marriage, unfulfilled dreams and desire. Although the topics suggest a serious drama, the film is actually a romantic comedy, the type that really deserved my thumbs up. During the second half, I was a little afraid that it would turn to clichés, such as we often see in Hollywood blockbusters, but luckily, this was not the case here.

The story is not predictable, it seems realistic and it brings eastern European atmosphere in a positive and jolly way. The characters are vivid, the actors excellent in portraying them (both the leading and supporting roles), the direction is superb, with many unexpected scene details and surprising elements you discover gradually.

I suppose that most comedy lovers would enjoy the film the same as I did, and as did the audience at Vukovar Film Festival 2011. There were many scenes that made everyone burst out laughing. It's one of the films that simply makes you feel good after seeing it.

Nice. Delicate. Naife. Slice of ordinary Romania or any East Europe country. A film like an onion bread. Or spring day. Traces of winter, seeds of summer. And mixture of nostalgia and hope. A movie about love and relationship. Small gestures, shadows of words, good intentions and discovery of life. Step by step. With innocence and resignations. The axis - a teenager for who the existence is only piece of clay to be molded. A story like a fragment from Tchekov universe. Or a song with humble lyrics. Nothing spectacular, nothing strong. Only a picture in a huge art gallery. And light of a spring day with soul of February. A woman, her husband, a boy, few words on chat, sketches of expectation and the truth as guillotine blade. In fact, white page in skin of pastel nuances.

Gabriel and Gabriela are a 40ish couple with a seventeen year old son, living a mundane and passionless existence, in modern day Romania. They coexist, each just going through the motions of a marriage with no meaning left in it. One night, without knowing it, each of them wind up in the same chat room on the internet, conversing with a supposed stranger. Day after day, the two grow more and more comfortable in the anonymity of cyberspace, and believe that they are falling in love with each other. Gabriela goes to work as a dry cleaner and Gabriel is a page turner for an orchestra. Meanwhile, their son, Vladimir narrates the story, which includes his frequent and funny sexual escapades with fellow young and willing classmates. He reminded me of Dustin Hoffman's Benjamin in "The Graduate." The three leads of this nuclear family are excellent; they seem to be a real family struggling to get by each day, and in the end I wished for a happy ending. A very impressive comedy-drama.

They never want to learn. Background music always too loud and you have to struggle to hear what they're saying. Romanian films always had this problem and they still don't want to/can't improve. Just awful. As per the movie itself, not too bad, but the terrible sound just makes it annoying.

During the last 15 minutes of the movie I was just laughing. Not because of the comedy (there is no such thing in this film), but because how stupid it could be. Imagine you are watching a soccer game and the players are so bad they are not even able to touch the ball – this kind of laugh I'm talking about. This movie was nothing but a 105' piece of unintentional humor.

Poor idea, bad script, flat action, stupid dialogs, unnatural acting performances, very slow pace (inexcusable in this case, since there is nothing deep to understand or feel). I had a strong feeling of seeing again some 80s' Romanian movie, such as 'Liceenii', but unnecessary nudity or sex scenes dotted about.

But the worst thing was the story itself. It's end, I mean. This end turned one bad movie into a huge non-sense. You lose your time expecting to see how the main characters solve their relationship problem, and you get them solving nothing. You endured such a long flat movie for no reward.

Recommended only for people who are not searching for any deep message and/or interesting story, just wanting to watch two 50 years old persons getting in love and... nothing more. I guess the fans of 'The Young and the Restless' will really enjoy this movie.

PS. I totally agree with Alex Iordache in his review.