'yes' and 'me you and everyone we know'

I've seen two movies recently that I am having a hard time writing up. The first was the most recent offering by Sally Potter, the director of 'Orlando', a film I thought I should have liked but which left me cold. This movie, 'Yes', had a similar effect, though it did strike me as sublimely beautiful in spots. There is a scene where the two lovers walk through a spring garden in full bloom which is absolutely divine. Joan Allen stars as the star biologist in a cold marriage who starts an affair with an Iranian refugee -- a former surgeon who now cooks and waits tables. Joan Allen is magnificent. Her face is extraordinarily expressive and seems like a textbook of acting. The script is full of artifice. The dialogue is all in rhyme, and no doubt it is meant to evoke a kind of 21st century Shakespeare. The themes are certainly full of humanity in a similar way, but here they seem overwrought. We are meant to gain insight into the clash of cultures, west and east, muslim and christian, upper and lower classes, white and coloured, north and south, and so on. I found it all a bit too unsubtle. Still, for the beauty and for Joan Allen's perfomance, well worth seeing.

As for 'Me You and Everyone We Know': I loved it. It is quirky but mainstream, profound but superficial, funny but serious. The actor who plays the youngest boy is incredible. [more on this later.