The Lunchbox (***)

The serendipitous mix-up has served the basis for many a romantic comedy, but quiet drama predominates here. Ila (Nimrat Kaur) is a Mumbai housewife whose hot lunches inadvertently get routed to government worker Saajan (Irrfan Khan) instead of her husband. With minimal set-up but perhaps a touch of contrivance — how is it that the delivery service suddenly starts making the same mistake every day? — the housewife and the office worker begin a correspondence. In no time the talk turns from food to other things. The spice that goes into Ila’s delicious meals has gone out of her marriage; Saajan, a widower about to take early retirement, lives a lonely life.

And so they pass old-fashioned notes on paper while never seeing each other. The chaste exchange, which reminded me of the 1987 film 84 Charing Cross Road, is as much about the need to unburden oneself as about the very gentle romantic subtext. The two leads serve as somewhat idealized recipients these wishes folded in paper, and the appeal of the film is very much about the lovely idea that one might accidentally find such a person. The only other significant character is the man who will replace Saajan at his job, although Ila has an upstairs neighbor who is heard, but not seen. For those who enjoyed the view of Mumbai in Slumdog Millionaire, this movie presents it as equally bustling, but a little less terrifying.


Inasmuch as the two main characters have not met and do not really know each other, the ending carries the story forward, but not too far, and that seems just right.

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viewed 4/3/14 7:10 pm at Ritz East and posted 4/3/14

Afternoon Delight (***1/4)

If you watch much comedy, there’s a good chance you’ll recognize Kathryn Hahn, but less chance you’ll know her name. She plays a lot of brassy women, like the ruthless campaign manager on Parks and Recreation, and she also has a supporting role in We’re the Millers. But she gets to headline this sometimes serious, sometimes raunchy comedy, playing the sometimes brassy but more frequently closed up Rachel, a Los Angeles housewife (and mother to a little boy) who can barely bring herself to tell her therapist (Jane Lynch) what’s bothering her, such as that she hasn’t had sex with her husband (Josh Radnor) in six months. (A little wine brings out the brassy, even raunchy, side.)

Into this story comes McKenna (Juno Temple), a stripper Rachel encounters on a visit to a local club. Something draws Rachel to her, and so Rachel seeks her out and eventually invites her to stay. I liked the character but she doesn’t fit in with the rescue fantasy Rachel but is also the sleazy gold-digger she might have been written as. Rachel is a tougher character to assess, a woman whose problem seems to be not being in touch with her problems. She might simply strike a lot of people as a spoiled rich woman with too much time on her hands, but the comedy, which is funny, tempers that, and I don’t think she’s meant to be entirely sympathetic. The way the plot resolves is not entirely the cliché it could have been, but the ending may be a little pat. Or maybe it’s subtle. I’m still not entirely clear on what leads Rachel to seek out the stripper; it seems maybe Rachel might have a kinky side, but this theme is explored in only the most tentative way, then tossed aside, despite a few nude scenes. In any case, a very good role for Hahn and a fairly promising feature debut for TV writer/producer Jill Soloway (United States of Tara).

IMDb link

viewed 9/11/13 7:30 at Ritz Bourse and posted 9/11/13

Little Children (***1/4)

? A young mother, Sarah felt something missing from her life. She would sometimes chat with the trio of fellow suburban housewives that gathered daily in a nearby playground, but did not think herself one of them. She couldn’t quite adopt their child-centered worldview, did not, for example, agree that the local sex offender, who after all had only exposed himself, ought to actually be castrated. But when she met Brad, another young parent, both of them felt a connection, the presence of something missing from their current relationships. So it is in Todd Field’s adaptation of Tom Perrotta’s novel, which stars Kate Winslet as Sarah, Patrick Wilson as Brad, and Jennifer Connelly as Brad’s wife.

+  The movie features a number of passages from the novel read in a voice that sounds like one of those book-on-tape guys. The effect is somewhere between arch humor and deliberate distance. The narrator’s disconcerting, yet I missed him when he went away. Field and his actors also more subtly convey a lot about these people’s lives and motivations. Winslet’s Sarah is definitely the most fleshed out, and the actress gives another great performance. While this is no action thriller, the pacing is quicker than in Field’s previous effort, In the Bedroom.

- Even if In the Bedroom was slow, it moved inexorably to a simple but satisfying ending that both fit the story and the characters. The ending here has too much timed to happen at once and isn’t as convincing. A smaller problem is that you can tell this was adapted from a novel. Nothing seems missing, exactly, but you feel like there ought to have been more to a few characters, particularly to Sarah’s husband, who’s a little more rounded out in the novel (which Perrotta adapted with Field).

= ***1/4 This isn’t going to be a movie for everyone. It’s unsettling, particularly with the voice-over, and it takes a detached view of its morally ambiguous characters. I think a lot of people will come out of the movie trying to figure out what it was trying to say, and why a sex offender plot was mixed into a story about potential adultery. On the other hand, the same odd mixture kept me watching to see where everything was going.

IMDb link