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Broken English

Broken English is fairly slight for a movie, but that doesn’t make it unentertaining. It’s one more in a long line of low budget, New York City-set love stories, but it does a few original things and relies mainly on the dependable charm of Parker Posey.

Posey plays Nora, a woman in her thirties who hasn’t married and thinks she’s cursed when it comes to dating. She has a decent job at a hotel and as the movie opens, her best friend Audrey (Drea De Matteo) is celebrating her fifth wedding aniversary. Her mother, played by Gena Rowlands, wants her to settle down and get married, of course.

So far, the movie reminded me a lot of Kissing Jessica Stein (minus the lesbian angle), although luckily this time we don’t go through the umpteenth “wacky blind date” montage. The uniqueness isn’t in the broad strokes of the plot but the details; especially entertaining (and believable) is Nora’s ill-fated date with a conceited rising movie star who seems less annoying the more she drinks.

The movie starts to find its own way when Nora meets Julian, a charming, although thankfully not over-the-top, guy from Paris. Will he turn out to be the one? Okay, falling in love with a romantic Frenchman isn’t exactly the most original plot point either, but it’s not treated as the kind of fantasy romance it easily could have been. Nora and Julian both seem more or less human, and that’s one of the film’s greatest strengths; too often movie romances feature a lonely everyman hero and some kind of manic, wildly attractive female who’s treated more as a concept of the guy’s Perfect Woman than a real human being. That dynamic worked for a while – Eternal Sunshine and Garden State are two big examples – but it’s nice to have a change, and we can thank writer/director Zoe Cassavetes (yes, the daughter of Rowlands and John Cassavetes) for her female perspective, as well as her inclination not to turn Julian into a concept, either. Of course, part of that is also thanks to actor Melvil Poupaud, who’s completely believable.

I also liked how Cassavetes included a subplot about Audrey losing faith in her marriage at the same time Nora is going through all of her troubles. It balances the main plot; focus away from Posey every once in a while helps to make Nora seem less self-possessed, which is always a danger with these types of films. Nora can be a whiner sometimes, but the inherent vulnerability that Posey conveys does a lot to get you rooting for her.

I don’t want to give anything away, but it’s worth mentioning that the last third or so of the movie takes place in Paris.

Frankly, I love that they did this. Any inclination I had to dismiss this as yet another example of the Looking for Love in NYC subgenre flew out the window, because they’re actually able to get out of NYC and not treat it like the center of the universe. I’m not trying to put down the city I live in; the great part about the switch is that it’s integral to the character of Nora. She feels constantly stifled, and maybe if she went overseas for a bit, she might be able to breathe easier?

All of these things might make the movie sound pretty good, and I guess it is, but I’m still a bit hesitant to go overboard with my praise. When it comes down to it, the movie isn’t very memorable, and while it can feel like a refreshing change of pace in this summer season, it doesn’t say much about romance or love that hasn’t already been said dozens of times. Cassavetes has proved here that she has talent of her own, can write believable characters, and gets good performances out of her actors. Hopefully next time she’s able to tackle something slightly more unique.

Movie Grade: B

Synopsis:

In a startling mature and nuanced performance, Parker Posey plays Nora Wilder, a thirty-something Manhattanite who is cynical about love and relationships, in this astute collaboration with first-time writer/director Zoe Cassavetes. Nora plugs away at her job in a posh downtown hotel and can’t help but wonder what it is she has to do to find a relationship as ideal as her friend Audrey’s (Drea De Matteo) “perfect marriage.” It doesn't help that her overbearing mother (Gena Rowlands) takes every opportunity to remind Nora that she’s still unattached. After a series of disastrous first dates, she meets Julien (Melvil Poupaud), a seemingly devil-may-care Frenchman with a passion for living. Expecting another disastrous ending, Nora tries to avoid making the same mistakes. She finds herself in Paris looking to break old patterns. Inevitably, Nora has to look inward before she can find a new outlook on life and most importantly, love.