[katyseagull]

Well I’m a little late to the party but I just watched the film last night and loved it. Thank you, thank you to everyone who recommended it! I thought the performances by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy were brilliant and so natural. Wonderful script. I found myself hanging on every word.

I agree with diebitter about the listening booth scene. It was my favorite scene too. When she would look up at him he would look away and when he looked at her she looked away. You could feel the tension (nice music btw) and man did I want him to kiss her (and kiss her hard!) but he didn’t. Gah, men!

I thought the dialogue in this movie was really cool and unlike anything I’ve watched in recent years. Not pompous or contrived at all. I agree with Kdawg that both characters seem more learned than what we would expect and it was just wonderful.

Fyodor wrote –
“these things and probably some others I just don't now recall, led me to believe Jesse was a sceptical, untrusting, pessimistic character who is going to lead a very lonely life.”

Yes, I agree he was skeptical and slightly pessimistic but it didn’t matter to me. Like Celine said, what’s so wrong with conflict? We can have conflict and disagreements about important things and still feel love and admiration for the other person. You don’t have to agree on everything. It actually made the couple believable to me. His character became very masculine and logical. She was the romantic, wanting to believe in the palm reader’s words. He was the typical guy who scoffed at that kind of thing and enjoyed expressing his skepticism and creating conflict. It made him more real and yes even appealing.

I liked the part where they are in the bar (or was it a restaurant?) where they are pretending to be phoning home and talking with their friends. Delpy is just mesmerizing isn’t she? And that shot of them laying side by side in the grass after drinking their wine, Ethan Hawke has never looked so sexy. My only complaint about the whole movie…no sex scene! Why couldn’t the director have let that scene go a little longer before cutting?

I have to admit that I really didn’t want to watch towards the end. I dreaded the ending. What a tear jerker. It’s kind of weird because I never thought Ethan Hawke was very attractive before this but his performance was so nuanced and honest. I liked it better than Lost in Translation myself.

My question, will watching the sequel ruin the magic of this one for me? I am on the fence about renting the next one.