REVIEW
I went into Conversations with Other Women without expectation, preconceived notions or any general knowledge of script, director or crew.  I had merely seen the poster, knew it boasted Aaron Eckhart and Helena Bonham-Carter and was doing something crazy with split screen.  That was all. 

And really that is the way to go into this poignant and engrossing flick.  Any attempt at summarization or recap basically ruins the magic of this movie.  So . . . I suggest you stop reading right now and take a trip to Blockbuster or Hollywood Video.  When you’ve watched the film, we’ll talk.

. . .

Now for all you little rebels who didn’t/won’t follow my instructions because you are to lazy to go rent a movie or don’t like to be told what to do or are brimming with so much curiosity that you just have to know everything right now . . . here is the rest of my review. 

When Woman (Helena Bonham-Carter) spies Man (Aaron Eckhart) amidst the swirling flurry of a giddy wedding reception, our future is set.  We are entangled, entrapped, ensnared in secretive glances, witty repartee, instantaneous chemistry and subtle hints of a past romantic history.  As their interaction continues, we wonder whether Man and Woman are meeting for the first time, are long lost friends or were, at some point, so much more.

At its core, Conversations with Other Women is a close-up on a conversation that lasts all night.  Man and Woman, engrossed in each other, end up as the last two people on the dance floor.  Even the wedding clean-up crew is ready to go home.  Dancing playfully along the line of propriety and then finally fully jumping over it, Man ends up in Woman’s hotel room, filled with a desire to reconnect with the one true love of his life.

It turns out that Man and Woman are not strangers as much as former lovers who have formed and molded individual lives after a mysterious separation.  Man is ready to give up his new life and all the wonder it holds – “23 on August the 12th” – to begin again with Woman.  But Woman is happy with “Jeffrey the Cardiologist” and merely came to sleep with Man one last time.  With each scene, Man and Woman are moved ever closer to an inevitable separation, to a real end to their relationship, to an overwhelming and final loneliness.

Conversations may sound like just another romantic dramedy but it is far from it.  With an insightful, piercing script and an innovatively engrossing split screen format implemented throughout the entire film, Conversations is an utterly unique movie. 

Crafting a poignant and meaningful glimpse into an almost universal break-up experience, Gabrielle Zevin’s script is excellent - witty, heartfelt, genuine, emotional, vulnerable.  The words leap and dance off the screen swirling with genuine power and warmth directly into the soul.  You want Man and Woman to be together, not just for themselves but for your own emotional well being. 

Director/Editor Hans Conosa’s innovative split screen format allows the audience to be active in the editing of this film. Each side of the screen alternately focuses on Man or Woman, playing the same scene from different angles.  Flashes of the past, other events that are happening simultaneously or glimpses of wishful thinking on the part of the main characters are sprinkled in amidst the flow of the story.   It’s up to the viewer to decide which screen to watch and when to watch it.  If/when you watch Conversations again, you can change your focus and find yourself in a completely different movie.

Although Woman captivated my attention, my sympathies were more clearly aligned with Man.  Eckhart was sweet, wheedling, so drastically in love with Woman and she was so distant, cold, seemingly heartless in her use and discarding of Man’s heart.  But upon my second viewing, I paid closer attention to Man and discovered a sensitivity in Bonham-Carter that Man was completely lacking. She was coming back to him because she really loved him and she was leaving him because she really loved him. 

It takes some fantastic acting to present two contrary views of a character in the same movie.  It takes some pretty fantastic editing to make those diverse views work.  And it takes some pretty fantastic directing to illicit the performances in the first place.  Basically, Conversations with Other Women is just fantastic.