And While We Were Here

I was tempted to give this a 10, because it does what it does very well, and ... I loved it. I'm giving it a 9, mainly because it's not just about me, and (judging from the other reviews it's gotten) it takes a certain kind of person--and definitely a certain mood--to appreciate what this movie has to offer. On a different night, I wouldn't have had the patience to sit through it, and that's partly because I can't slow myself down often enough, but it's also partly because the movie doesn't do quite as much as it could to draw the viewer in. You need to be in a relaxed, introspective state of mind, I think, but if/when you are, you might find this as rewarding as I did.

I don't want to say a whole lot about the plot, the characters, or the issues that they try to deal with. Part of what I like most about this movie is the way it reveals these things, so I think it's best to not know many details going in. But I will say that there seem to be some important lessons about life and relationships that could be taken away from this, and the messages come across in a natural, unforced way. This is pretty rare.

Reviewers have pointed out that Bosworth does a fine job here, and I completely agree, but the rest of the cast also deserves plenty of praise. Most of what's going on in this movie is pretty subtle, and lesser actors/actresses would have tried to overdo things--and a lesser director would've let them. Even minor missteps in acting or directing can be quite a turn-off for me, but I don't recall any such thing in this case. The locations and camera work didn't hurt either. I was immersed from start to finish.

I also loved the dialogue. Here, too, what I appreciated was that it wasn't overdone, nor was it too subtle. The people on screen talked pretty much like you'd expect them to. (I never found myself thinking, "That character would never put things that way.") Nothing seemed artificial.

So, I guess I could sum things up by saying this is a patient, enjoyable, and flawlessly executed study of certain issues many of us are going to run up against at some point in our lives. I honestly think that many reviewers just don't get it.

I am not going to comment on this movie beyond asking why on earth did the director choose two actors who mumbled their way through much of their lines. And then direct the third actor who wasn't a mumbler at least to whisper a key line. Can anyone tell me what he said to her when they were hiding behind the car? Can anybody tell me what she said to him in another whispered speech when he sat down at their table the next day, not to mention why she would whisper something to him like that in front of her husband. This is not the only movie where I have experienced this problem which seems to be increasing due to the "hand- held" camera plague which is a parallel phenomenon to this mumbling plague, but this one was so egregious at key moments. Sorry, I didn't get any further . . couldn't bear it . . . Annoying!! I was dying to have Claire Bloom make a physical rather than just verbal appearance and bring some maturity to both the movie and the characters. Nice scenery.

i often wondered how a lousy and deadbeat screenplay would be realized and okay-ed by the production people(the investors) to go ahead, and this film is right on the money and a living example of what i've just said. from the very beginning of the brain-dead film. the man and the woman both did a horrible acting, holding books in their hands, but their eyes never moved between lines. they were just holding the books without any believable acting. then the incident when they were wrongly brought to an address and the woman found her wallet was missing. well, if it was the man who's paying the taxi fee, she got no reason to roam in her purse. then the unreasonable response of the taxi driver was also over re-acted. and when she found that she lost her purse, again, she didn't react as the average people who just found out that they had lost their credit cards, their cash and whatsoever. it's just like either it happened very often or she couldn't care less, there was no normal anxiety, agitation, upset emotions showed in her body language, facial expressions and her voice. she was so calm and so unbelievably cool. her stupid acting was never corrected by the stupid and blind director. then scene after scene, every sentence of the stupid dialog just kept floating up one after another, and the poor acting of the female main character and everybody involved in this stupid and bore-to-death film simply never improved and never corrected. i was like watching a bunch of dead fish in a fish tank all afloat on top of the water, no nothing, just a big Nada!

I expected something else from the trailer, true.

But I still love this movie. It's so brutally honest. So simple. It's a movie about life and love. The kind ones that actually happen, not some Hollywood bullshit. How lines between people are messy and you can't see where they start and where they end. How some people have a huge influence on us. It's a movie about a woman finding herself. It's raw, but it's real. You have to find beauty in simplicity to really appreciate it. Some people are here just to show us that there is more of this world than what we have. Everything we thought we knew so well and sure about, now we doubt. The things you never thought you needed a second thought, yet you will. Nothing, ever, is sure. We do not see the lines between us, other people and things and that's why it's so hard to break from society and do something else. To have strength to leave something that meant so much to us, to have the strength to admmit that it doesn't no more.

I enjoyed it very much.

Troubled couple arrive in Naples and settle in. He to play viola for concerts, she to work on WWII novel / memoir. Gorgeous settings of isle of Ischia, offset by serious, depressing tone of a husband and wife who can no longer communicate with each other. She meets a 19 year old, still very boyish, reckless and full of youthful energy. He comes off as initially annoying, and I cannot say he grew on me, but I did get accustomed to him. The plot meanders around as the young wife (Kate Bosworth - quite good here) broods much of the time. Much of her story is internal, thinking and rethinking, about her situation and possibilities. All the time, she is listening to recordings of her grandmother, recalling her own youth. "Chick flick" might resonate more with female viewers.