Thursday, August 21, 2014

The One I Love in 200 Words or Less

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I suppose you've got to come up with a good angle to realize a solid science-fiction-tinged romance a la The One I Love (or TiMER or Eternal Sunshine or the also-Duplass-starring Safety Not Guaranteed) but the team of Mark Duplass and Elizabeth Moss makes it seem so effortless here that I found myself wondering halfway through why we don't see more movies tackle this terrain. It seems like there's a lot of gold to be shaken from them thar hills. But then at one point I was reminded of Joss Whedon's recent mostly-misfire In Your Eyes and I realized it's not an infallible route to goodness. But the percentages are high! The One I Love is mostly an exercise in watching two very good, low-key actors twist themselves into itty bitty pretzels of variation, and as such it's a perfectly worthwhile and maybe even in the end haunting use of ninety-five minutes. Moss is especially terrific - there's a late-in-the-film scene over some dishes that spins and pivots off of her own playful change-ups of expression and tone, and its a humdinger.
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2 comments:

Unknown said...

I thought this was decent & fun. The observations about relationships were a little trite/simple, and the sci-fi/Twilight Zone conceit really only worked when it was unexplained. The screwball comedy take on the bizarre guesthouse was probably the smartest decision the director & writer made. Yes, Moss rules.

I thought Coherence was the much superior indie sci-fi from this summer.

sissyinhwd said...

reminded me of an old movie called THE ENCHANTED COTTAGE with Robert Young.

Just as LOVE IS STRANGE reminded me of a great old film by Leo McCarey called MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW. Orson Welles called it the 'saddest movie ever made." I cried so hard when I watched it I have never had the courage to watch it again.