Conversations With Other Women

Conversations With Other Women is more of a gimmick than a film. The game is this. The screen is split in half, one side for the most part focussing on Aaron Eckhart’s charmer and the other centred on Helena Bonham Carter’s bridesmaid at a wedding. Neither character is named, although their respective other halves – Carter’s second husband Jeffrey the cardiologist (Phillip Littell) and Eckhart’s “23 in August” Sarah the dancer (Cerina Vincent), are glimpsed from time to time.

It quickly becomes clear that what, initially, seems to be a first meeting is really something much more, and as the action moves to the bedroom – where it stays for three-quarters of the film - you know that souls are about to be given the once over with a fine-toothed comb.

Initially, the split screen seems like a quirky idea. But it gets old fast. The perspective feels forced and wrong. We don’t even see the characters from one another’s point of view, but instead from an angle of a third – and sometimes fourth – onlooker. This has the effect of making the whole film feel like a stage play – not what you want when you are trying to drag your audience into the emotion of the moment.

The script has moments of cleverness – but the dialogue is ultimately too brittle to make you really care. It is Eckhart and Carter who save the day by dint of acting their socks off. They are so good in their respective roles, they rise above the inadequacies of the script, though they can’t quite make you forget you’re watching a film, thanks to the self-conscious camera posturing of Hans Canosa. Without the split personality, this would have been a much better film.