A long commentary could readily been written to adumbrate the following remark, but this would almost seem to be redundant.
This was a remarkable, even beautiful, drama composed in the authentic voices of enchanting, sometimes witty, verse, verse whose theatrical power consistently grows during the film in proportion to its philosophical sophistication. From its opening to its closing "chorus" expressed in the person of a humble housekeeper, this film offers the story of an arduous love between an unCatholic American woman, a castaway in her hopeless marriage, and her Moslem Lebanese suitor, "stranded" as an existential alien in America. The story ascends to sometimes Shakespearean levels of character development and twisting plot as the lovers evolve, a tale bearing the wounds of a tumultuous, irresistible personal struggle that is fraught with profound moral and psychological ambiguities, all within a post-modern social and political context that enmeshes and deepens the nature of shifting meanings expressed in human bonds and bondage.
Says the voice of the housekeeper/chorus, in the final crucible of perilous affirmation--
"In fact, I think I guess that
No does not exist, But only Yes."
Joan Allen's career reaches its pinnacle here, giving us the brilliant actress at her best.
This was a remarkable, even beautiful, drama composed in the authentic voices of enchanting, sometimes witty, verse, verse whose theatrical power consistently grows during the film in proportion to its philosophical sophistication. From its opening to its closing "chorus" expressed in the person of a humble housekeeper, this film offers the story of an arduous love between an unCatholic American woman, a castaway in her hopeless marriage, and her Moslem Lebanese suitor, "stranded" as an existential alien in America. The story ascends to sometimes Shakespearean levels of character development and twisting plot as the lovers evolve, a tale bearing the wounds of a tumultuous, irresistible personal struggle that is fraught with profound moral and psychological ambiguities, all within a post-modern social and political context that enmeshes and deepens the nature of shifting meanings expressed in human bonds and bondage.
Says the voice of the housekeeper/chorus, in the final crucible of perilous affirmation--
"In fact, I think I guess that
No does not exist, But only Yes."
Joan Allen's career reaches its pinnacle here, giving us the brilliant actress at her best.