Movie Review: 'Conversations with Other Women' 

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Movie Review: 'Conversations with Other Women'

FUNNY GAMES: Helena Bonham Carter & Aaron Eckhart (Revelation Films)

On the basis of the film poster, you'd imagine this to be a romantic comedy. However

Conversations with Other Women is a surprisingly clever, stylish, and cinematically progressive movie. Not only does it assume that the viewer can put elements of the "puzzle" together without narrative assistance, it does so with a relaxed freshness.

The film revolves around two main protagonists known simply as Man (Aaron Eckhart� Thank You For Smoking ) and Woman (Helena Bonham Carter� Fight Club ). The characters�the last members of a wedding reception�seem to be strangers, but it becomes evident that they are playing games with each other.

Themed around age, the past and nostalgia, Hans Canosa's direction and Gabrielle Zevin's script allow the sexual interplay to be consistently tight throughout. Due to its simplicity and focus on dialogue over everything else, at times it feels like being drawn into a powerful stage play. Helena Bonham Carter is scarily convincing in her role, and Aaron Eckhart is the equivalent of Ernie Wise to her Eric Morecambe ('nuff said). Indeed, Bonham Carter's performance is of such a standard that she deserves a state-sanctioned pardon for her participation in the big budget folly that was Tim Burton's remake of Planet of the Apes .

To illustrate the story in greater depth and provide the viewer with much needed context, a split screen effect is used throughout. For many, this style will be familiar from its use in the television programme 24 ; it was most effectively utilised in Mike Figgis's fantastic Timecode . The effect it has is to tease the audience with fragments of the relationship the two once had, while highlighting parallels between the past and present.

The sexual tension between Man and Woman, a classic dramatic convention if ever there was one, provides real emotional intensity and helps sustain the film over its 84 minutes.

Man has a girlfriend and Woman is married. The tension builds up as they go back to Woman's bedroom to reflect on their shared history. Man begs but Woman has no plans to leave her husband: Man even suspects that Woman raised his child in another country without his knowledge. Thankfully it ends without providing all the answers, and is a stronger film because of this.

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