bix171
03-26-2004, 12:22 AM
Like most films either adapted from Hanif Kureishi’s fiction or having screenplays written by him (“My Beautiful Laundrette”, “Sammy And Rosie Get Laid” as well as this film, which lists Kureishi as a co-writer along with Anne-Louise Trividic and director Patrice Chereau), “Intimacy” circles its subject in an indirect manner, never declaring what it’s truly about but leaving a distinct impression. This can make for difficult viewing, requiring an inordinate amount of concentration to keep up (and which wears you down after a while) and it only sinks in long after it’s over. But that’s the film’s strong point: the writers prefer to have you draw your own conclusions, with dialogue that forces you to read between the lines of an affair in which both participants seem to be using it to address their individual demons. Chereau and Kureishi are more interested in their characters’ circumstances than their actions but it’s precisely their circumstances that make their actions compelling. Mark Rylance and Kerry Fox are the lovers (and they’re excellent, even though the fact their trysts are presented in explicit detail may overshadow their performances), with Rylance as a bitter bartender who has spontaneously abandoned his family and Fox as a drama teacher stifled in her marriage to a cabbie (Mike Leigh favorite Timothy Spall, also very fine) whom Rylance befriends in an attempt to understand her; it’s the tensions that build around the trio that drives the narrative. It’s an unhappy yet sensitive film that may distance some audiences and push others into uncomfortable areas they may not want to visit—yet there’s no denying its inquisitive, intelligent presence.