Broken English (2007)

Director:

Zoe R. Cassavetes

Writer:

Zoe R. Cassavetes

              Everybody needs it, everybody is looking for it, but, unfortunately, not everybody finds it.
It was and is the reason for many people to die or to kill for, even whole nations waged wars because of it and yet at the same time it was also the reason for marvelous creations.
The trouble is that you never know when you will find it and once you do, you have to work really hard to keep it. Why do we even go through all that trouble to find something that in the end could, literally, kill you or make you miserable?! It is because it is our nature, it is embedded in every living soul and life without it has no meaning. The joy that overcomes us when we find it can hardly be described by words, though many have tried to do so.
Some, that realize its power, will try to abuse it and some will, even though they know, willingly let themselves be abused. Some even fear it and never fulfill their need. The power of this feeling is immeasurable. This feeling is called Love.  

               Plot story: Nora Wilder is a young and pretty woman, but seems to be unable to find somebody worth a while. She is getting desperate and the fact that almost everybody around her is in some kind of relationship is making her nervous. When all seems lost an unexpected arrival changes the monotony of her life.

              From the reviews introduction you would probably expect this movie to be one of those cheesy romantic movies where everything follows the same pattern as in most other movies of this type. Luckily this time this isn’t one of those movies. This one subtly portrays the modern life of a young woman that finds herself wanting something more of it. She is successful at her job, but she is unhappy and she is getting desperate. It seems as though the more she tries the more she fails when it comes to love. On the opposite side her best friend has, what most people would consider, a happy marriage, but she too is unhappy because her marriage has become a habit and she longs for past times. So it’s kind of funny that Nora wants something so badly that her best friend already has, but doesn’t appreciate. 

 

 What differentiates this movie from the bunch is the way in which the characters are presented. They are someone you could easily relate to and the situations in which they find themselves are very probable in the real life too. One could say that there are lots of Noras out there in the real world. In her desperation to find someone Nora has built a defensive wall around herself and it took someone like Julian to bring it down. Julian is spontaneous and simple, what he says he means it and he was exactly what Nora needed. He is a man that holds his ground when faced with a beautiful, but insecure woman like Nora. The whole philosophy behind their meeting is that she stumbled upon a man that matched her needs after a series of failures. This is accentuated by the way in which the movie itself is conceived. There are lots of fast changing scenes with rather superficial small talk between few people, mostly two at the time. By doing this the director managed to achieve the feeling of random situations that life throws you into rather than showing liner and chaos free storyline. This way it all feels more plausible. 

Nora was brought to life by the amazing Parker Posey which earned the reputation and the nickname of being the “Queen of the indies” because of over thirty low-budget, independent movies she appeared in. Her charisma and talent for acting gave Nora that feeling of agony and pain that she went trough. Drea de Matteo (known for her role in The Sopranos) played her best friend and did a fine job as did Melvil Poupaud whilst portraying Julian. The rest of the cast blended in nicely, but Nora was absolutely in the spotlight the whole time of the movie.

Like Nora everybody goes through the path of finding themselves and finding happiness in life. The problem is that that is not easy. People have the need to feel complete, but as long as they expect others to complete them they are wasting time. The path to happiness begins within oneself.
This movie illustrates that premise with a fine touch at the end. The only “bad” thing about this movie that we can think of is that it’s labeled as a comedy. We didn’t find anything especially comic about it, but rather charming yet fast forwarded life story that could happen to anyone to some degree.

Our score:
Liz: 8,5/10
Kyle: 7/10