Reviews

What Happened Was

Amy Francis

The close proximity of my new apartment to a repertory cinema has caused me to go through a movie-going renaissance. Unfortunately, most of my discoveries have been in the mediocre to bad category. Like Barcelona, directed by the guy who did Metropolitan, which was much better. There were times when the movie made me laugh, but for the most part it seemed bent on convincing the world that all Spanish women are buxom and brainless. However, Woody Allen's latest, Bullets Over Broadway, is wonderful, in part because it gives us Allen's brilliant directing without his angst-ridden acting. Dianne Wiest is fantastic. The one truly memorable film I happened across, though, was What Happened Was, directed by Tom Noonan. Describing a "first date" between two co-workers at a law firm, the entire film takes place in one apartment, without any deviations from real time. As the two characters attempt to understand one another in an often humorous, often tragic way, the audience is given a perfectly rendered insight into how abnormal normal people are.

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