30 Second Bottom Line: An erotic portrayal of sexual intimacy, which ultimately leads to real personal intimacy for a man and a woman adrift on the sea of unsatisfied marital relationships.
Story Line: A man and a woman. They come together each Wednesday afternoon at 2 o'clock in a shabby London flat. The preciseness of the hour is necessary, as they know nothing of each other's lives beyond this time they spend together. A distorted outline of Claire (Kerry Fox) is seen through the opaque glass of the front door as Jay (Mark Rylance) approaches it to let this woman into his life for a brief, intense time. She enters and as she glances around she inquires if he really does live here. He responds, a bit annoyed, that she asked that before. He just wants to get to the good part, the release. They descend into a cluttered basement room, the floor strewn with blankets. There is no foreplay; they quickly undress and begin to devour each other sexually. No romance exists here, just a great sense of urgency rather than intimacy.
Jay is head barman in a trendy London watering hole. He has walked away from his marriage and the day to day responsibility of raising two children. His ex-wife, the cool and detached Susan (Susannah Harker), is not given any of the shaded, rumpled nuances present in Jay, Claire or any of his other acquaintances. Jay is experiencing a slow, painful descent into anger and depression, living in relative squalor. His friend Victor (Alastair Galbraith), drugged-out and with no place to live, moves in with Jay, presumably a temporary situation. Jay tells him he has two days. Ian (Phillipe Calvario), a new bartender, rubs Jay the wrong way (as most people do). Candidly matter of fact about being gay, Ian, along with a recovering Victor, form the bulwark to help Jay let go of the past.
The weekly assignations between Claire and Jay continue. Desperate, wanton moments spent clinging to each other. We begin to see a dependency forming, an expectation of fulfillment. Claire wants to satisfy not only her needs but she wants to breathe life into Jay as well. At the same time she revives herself. Jay begins to care about Claire's satisfaction, on a level of true intimacy. They become, as director Patrice Chereau wants us to envision them, a couple.
Jay wants more. One Wednesday he follows Claire from his apartment. He sees her enter an apartment complex and leave again with dry cleaning over her arm. She travels by bus to a lively pub, where Jay is directed to a stairway sign reading Theater and Toilets Downstairs. Claire is performing in a production of The Glass Menagerie. While seated in the small theater, avoiding being seen by Claire, Jay discovers Claire has a husband, Andy (Timothy Spall), and a young son. Andy is an amiable working class stiff, who enjoys a game of billiards and a pint. He's attentive to his son, who loves to see his mother perform. Andy strikes up a friendly conversation with Jay upstairs in the bar at intermission. Jay, shaken by these revelations, begs off on returning for the second act.
We learn a good deal more about Claire as Jay struggles with his feelings of near betrayal about her. Does he have any right to feel this way? They have designed the parameters of their relationship and he clearly has crossed the boundaries. Claire teaches an acting class two nights a week. Her best friend is Betty (Marianne Faithfull), a wise and wonderfully engaging amateur actress who is in Claire's class. The scene Claire is directing for Betty and her partner bears a striking resemblance to something we've seen before. Is Claire's involvement with Jay grist for her mill of experiences to file away? Ironically, Jay expresses a dislike for actors early on, when he comments about the wait staff at his bar who are actors waiting to be discovered.
Meanwhile, Jay keeps returning to the play and engages in a psychological game of cat and mouse in the bar with Claire's husband. Jay's barbs cut close to the quick with Andy, who may not be just a "good old boy," in US parlance.
After Jay discovers Claire is married he becomes obsessed, jealous and even angrier. They have a dispassionate, brutal encounter one afternoon, leaving Claire to gather her clothes, slip into them and walk out the door in silence.
These two people breathed life back into each other, through passionate kisses and wanton lust. Tantric lovemaking has got nothing on them. The characters may speak to you; you may understand them all too well. Ultimately, their true, intimate relationship does allow each to come away with a fragile wholeness.
Tell Me More About It: The winner of the Golden Bear, Best Actress and Best European Director awards at the Berlin Film Festival 2001, this film is based on the novel Intimacy and the story Night Light, by Hanif Kureishi. There was deep collaboration between director/writer Patrice Chereau and his co-writer Anne-Louise Trividic with Kureishi.
The original works conveyed how two people who don't know each other can build a relationship. Chereau brings this to the screen. The two people in the film meet without speaking, we don't know how. Little by little they become truly intimate with each other.
Soundtrack