Complicados & Apaixonados

This movie is outstanding because it captures real life romance and dating experience that we can all relate to, and it does so in such a humorous way! The suspense keeps you at the edge of your seet, the acting is excellent, and Amanda Peet is hot!

I saw this film last year at the Gen Art Film Festival in NYC, where it won Audience Award. I just watched it a second time eleven months later on videotape, (a copy submitted to another festival, which inexplicably rejected it), and it holds up.

It has a few flaws: Amanda Peet's character is shunted aside too cavalierly in the third act; we never see these guys at the jobs they mention often; the lead character's novel being queried about by an agent goes nowhere, and an ending that ends flat, despite the enjoyable movie that leads up to it. But the pluses are many: great soundtrack, good NYC locations, no false notes, and a breezy pace.

Bray Poor, who I saw off Broadway in what I thought was an authentic Cockney accent, is simply great as the shallow NYC friend. Amanda Peet is very engaging here, which explains why I wanted to see more of her. And the lead actor is extremely good. Cara Buono was fine as the main Nina. (She's a hell of a writer. I've read her "Charmed Life" screenplay.)

All in all, an entertaining dead-on dating movie. Men and women will both like it. Where are the distributors?? Worse dreck has been in theaters. This played equally well in a theater with an audience, and at home on tape by myself. It deserves more of an audience.

Ron Livingston hasn't been in a relationship in some time. So when he finds himself dating two beautiful women - Cara Buono and Amanda Peet - who are both named Nina, it takes him some time to sort out his feelings.

Writer-director Neil Turitz first movie offers some insight to dating in New York in the 1990s as a sort of sexual battlefield, in which only one prisoner is taken, and for some reason, reminds me of the better known CHASING AMY... sexual obsession of nice guys causing them to act inappropriately perhaps. The script is a low-key deadpan comedy, and pretty good on those terms, but Turitz seems to lack confidence that the audience will sympathize with Livingston, so he has best friend Bray Poor pop up every ten minutes or so to explain the protagonist's confusion to some guy in a bar. Why this couldn't have been handled by having Livingston express his dilemma to Poor is beyond me.

The plot in Two Ninas doesn't break any new ground, in fact it's pretty unoriginal and predictable, but it's not the plot that pulls you in. The likeable characters that Ron Livingston and Nina Buono portray, along with very memorable writing that resembles "Swingers" and "Office Space" make it a great watch. Ron Livingston's parts just keep getting better (the slouch-shouldered, down-on-his-luck, lonely twenty-something); and who is this Nina Buono? So brew some coffee, get some smokes, and watch this movie while you drown in your own self-pity.

There's precious little romance to be found in this romantic comedy which tells of a slump shouldered, self pitying, self deprecating wuss who dates two women both named Nina. How's that for creative? "Two Ninas" is an okay watch and a decent shoot with enough relationship issues to maintain interest all the way to it's fizzling conclusion. However, the film trades charm and heart for hip and cool as it presents its characters as one dimensional, self-centered, hard edged stereotypes. Recommended for anyone into the adult singles dating scene.