When a man (Aaron Eckhart) and a woman (Helena Bonham Carter) flirt with each other at a wedding reception, the sexual tension seems spontaneous. As they break from the party to a hotel room, the flirtation turns into a night filled with passion and remorse. (imdb.com)

This is my favorite film of 2006 and one of my top 10 favorite films of the past decade. Helena Bonham Carter and Aaran Eckhart star in Hans Canosa’s beautifully directed and Gabrielle Zevin’s beautifully written Conversations with Other Women. The premise: A man and woman meet at a wedding (his sister’s). They banter. They flirt. At the end of the night they go up to her room. She’s married and he’s seriously involved. The twist: Through perfectly written banter, which is amusing, sexy, smart and natural, as the night wears on, we begin to realize these two strangers are not strangers at all. The glue: What makes this film exceptional is Canosa’s use of the split screen coupled with Zevin’s well balanced dialogue. The tagline of this film is “There are two sides to every love story”. The split screen always has Eckhart and Carter on either side of the screen, or either of them on one screen and a flashback on the other or, more poignantly, in one case, after Eckhart asks Carter if she’s happy, in one screen we see Carter crying and another laughing. All this to suggest the complexity of emotion and relationships.

This perhaps is the perfect film because the writing is exceptional and has to be because it is a two character film. The directing is exceptional because it has to be or the split screen would seem more like a gimmick than a tool. The acting is dead on and has to be because the other two elements are so strong.

Lookout for another Zevin and Canosa film Margarettown which starts production in summer 2007.

Here’s a list of Similar films:
• We Don’t Live Hear Anymore: a bit heavy handed, but not too bad
• Sex, Lies and Videotape: one of my favorite films
• Ponette: is similar in so far as the exceptional directing and revealing of a unique and intimate perspecitve
• Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: great film

• Directing: [rating:5/5]
• Acting: [rating:5/5]
• Casting: [rating:5/5]
• Cinematography: [rating:5/5]
• Writing: [rating:5/5]
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