★★★1/2
There are several good, small, dialogue driven movies but they are so difficult to find among the schlock that is out there. There is also so few directors who can handle such a movie. Among the ones that come to mind: Sidney Lumet, Richard Linklater, Joel and Ethan Coen. Judging by the way he handles this film, Hans Canosa can be added to that list.
When a man (Aaron Eckhart) and a woman (Helena Bonham Carter) flirt with each other at a wedding reception the tension between the two could be cut with a knife. They go up to the same hotel room where, during a night of passion and discussing their significant others, we discover that they are not as much of strangers as we once thought.
The entire film is edited in split-screen and rather than doing fast cuts we see different angles of the same scene. This is an original and interesting way to approach the film. Don't let the whole multiple things going on in the same picture thing frighten you away. There is a single frame version. Even if you do watch the split-screen, you could close your eyes and fully understand what is going on in the movie because there is so much well-written dialogue.
I'm going to risk offending some of her die-hard fans but I don't like Helena Bonham Carter in her Tim Burton movies or in her roles in the Harry Potter films. I much prefer her in roles like this one. Her films where she plays calm non-eccentrics are so much better than the loud, obnoxious ones we see so often.
Folks, you need to watch at least one of the two versions of the film. Preferably both of them.
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