Falling in love is a reckoning of sorts: a stroll down a twisty trail. It begins with a silent curiosity for the other person, with everythig they do seemingly, a mystery. The infatuation then slowly kicks in, making the object of love seem larger than life, resplendent, and glorious. This might lead to self loathing, for the inadequacies and insufficiencies that are perceieved in oneself. Occasionally, there is anger and hatred, for a desire that's tangible yet out of reach. And if paths were to align, there is consolation, and of course, passion and love: the hurried cascade of affection for the loved one, the myopic disdain for every other thing or person in the vicinity, the smudgy yet starkly distinct first moments of intimacy and lovemaking, the incessant wave of joy.
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A man and his estranged wife, meet after a hiatus. They are on the opposite sides of a glass wall, one of those one-way mirrors. The man can see his wife - and in turn, face all the guilts of his past. The wife can only hear the man, and thus he remains as enigmatic and whimsical as ever. The setting is one of those places where lonely men can go to talk to women of their fantasies, over a phone, separated by the aforementioned glass wall. What other setting can be so unique for a reckoning like this, so intimate yet detached, so close yet so far. What brought the man and the woman there, is secondary. What matters is that they talk, about their past, and about their future.
The smartest thing about this movie is its setting. It is post WWII-era Baltimore, at the height of the cold war. Americans fear the Russians and have gigantic secret labs full of variegated weapons research. This draws out to the point of capturing mysterious amphibious creatures from the Amazon to study their anatomy in an effort to amplify human wartime capability. Elsewhere within the city, African-Americans cannot dine in at an American diner and can only get take out food. A white American man is dismissed brutally from the same diner by it's owner for showing traits of homosexuality in a tender moment. In short, the setting, is a city and a world filled with diversity that finds itself lost in a potpourri of discrimination, disparity, fear, and hatred.
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Read MoreAtlantic CityAtlantic City says so much about two people in a relationship, without saying too much.
BooksmartA comedy that is fun, while being just good cinema in the first place.
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