Conversations With Other Women.

AO Scott presents the set-up in the New York Times: "In Conversations With Other Women, his debut feature, Hans Canosa splits the screen in two as he observes a man and a woman - their names are never supplied - talking themselves and each other into a one-night stand." Ultimately, he decides, "the film is too studied, too forward in its conceits to be entirely satisfying - but [Aaron] Eckhart and [Helena] Bonham Carter approach their roles with intelligence and conviction."

But Michelle Devereaux, writing in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, finds the film "surprisingly effective," adding, "if you want to pick sides - jerky corn-fed schmo or beautifully bruised cynical sophisticate - place your bets on Bonham Carter."

For the LA Weekly's Ella Taylor, "though the movie is occasionally too clever-talky for its own good, it has the authentic ring of an elegy for love lost when one partner grows up while the other runs in place."

Gary Dretzka scopes the film's chances and talks with Eckhart and Canosa: "Turns out, the story of Canosa's personal journey from a missionary posting in Singapore, to New York and Hollywood, is every bit as fascinating as any picture released in the months since the last limousine carrying a freeloading celebrity rolled out of Park City, Utah. It would make a terrific movie... that is, if anyone would believe it."

Carina Chocano in the Los Angeles Times: "It's sad and funny, satisfying and frustrating, totally familiar. What their sly teasing and gentle baiting reveals, aside from an arch understanding of the self-imposed but still seemingly unpassable romantic roadblocks we throw in our path as we age, is a yearning for a time before accumulated experience completely obscures the view."

"Ordinarily, I might be disinclined to like a film that relies on no less than three gimmicks to carry its weight, but when gimmicks actually work as well as they do in Conversations With Other Women, I'll cut it some slack," writes Cinematical's Kim Voynar.

It's "smart, sexy," writes Mick LaSalle in the San Francisco Chronicle, so "enjoy it, because this is not a trend that's about to catch on."

indieWIRE sends its questions to Canosa.

Posted by dwhudson at August 12, 2006 12:49 PM