Sam's Blog - Face of Love

Here at the Midtown Cinema, we love films about doubles... or so our recent history states: as the psychological thriller, Enemy, leaves our theater, the more dramatic The Face of Love replaces it, telling the story of Nikki (Annette Bening), a woman who lost her husband, Garrett, to a riptide in Mexico. Five years later, she still struggles with her quiet grief: she avoids places that they used to frequent, but is unable to shake off memories of him -- she even has to continue turning away telemarketers who have not crossed Garrett off their list. It is clear that Nikki gets by through the moments with those closest to her: her neighbor, Roger (Robin Williams), and her college-age daughter, Summer (Jess Weixler).

One day, Summer asks if she still goes to LACMA, the art museum that she and Garrett used to frequent, and Nikki decides to go back once more. Flooded with the memories the museum brings back, Nikki is surprised to see a man who looks exactly like Garrett wandering the grounds. It is not her imagination -- the main is named Tom (played by Ed Harris), she discovers in her sleuthing (read: minor stalking), and teaches art at the local university -- and he actually does look exactly like her deceased husband. Nikki strikes up a friendship with him through painting lessons that she doesn't even want, and soon, their friendship buds into a romance. But Nikki conveniently neglects to mention to Tom who he looks like.

Chances are, you know exactly where the story is headed -- but if our protagonist made the right decisions, it wouldn't be much of a movie, now, would it? Nikki decides to take the plunge, trying to fit Tom into her husband's shoes: she dresses him up like Garrett, she takes them to the restaurants they frequent -- she even takes him on a getaway to the very place that he died. At first it seems that she is just too scared to tell him about their resemblance, but over the span of the film you realize that she has no intention at all of letting him in on this detail. Nikki spirals into her own created delusion, spurning those closest to her -- even her daughter -- in her attempt to hold onto Garrett.

The film feels a little like a debut film, and doesn't really push the envelope with a subject that begs for it to do so... The plot is a little predictable, the characters a little flat -- at no fault of the actors, who vie for your affections throughout the film with their performances. It's the screenplay that fails to create that necessary connection with Nikki as she toes the line. Tom actually seems to be the more relatable, and more fleshed out, character. However, it is a beautifully shot film, and is a great (albeit shallow) dip into the concept of chasing after lost love, no matter how wrong it is.

Come check out The Face of Love at the Midtown Cinema this week!