British director Sally Potter deserves credit for being that rare thing, an experimental filmmaker who actually makes a living and gets her movies shown in arthouses. In movies such as “Orlando” and “The Tango Lesson” she has shown her willingness to risk everything on daring ideas.
But that doesn’t mean I have to like her movies. Her new film, “Yes,” fits the pattern: it’s inventive, risky, politically charged. I found it insufferably pretentious.
“Yes” looks at an affair between two people in London: an Irish-American woman (Joan Allen) known only as She, and a Lebanese man (Simon Abkarian) known only as He.
The name game would be bad enough, but Potter has added another quirk to the stew. The movie’s dialogue, all of it, is in rhyming couplets. This becomes almost comically awkward, and after a certain point I kept wanting somebody to break out into a dirty limerick.
It almost goes without saying that She’s marriage to a British politician (Sam Neill) is stultifying and sexless, and that her Middle Eastern lover is potent and hot. Along with the sex, there’s geo-politics to discuss, and since She is American, she needs to be scolded for not having read the Koran.
Clearly, what this woman needs is some consciousness-raising – perhaps a trip to Beirut followed by a visit to Cuba. Which is exactly where the movie takes her.
The characters, including the supporting roles, slot neatly into categories. The Lebanese lover is a doctor in his country, but works as a cook in a restaurant in London. There are some potentially intriguing conversations he has with his co-workers, yet these tend to degenerate into familiar cliches.
Without question, the actors labor heroically to make something of this. Joan Allen always brings a lot to the table, and it’s interesting to watch her wrestle the rhyming speech into something musical. Akbarian and Neill are also strong.
The best element in the picture is She’s maid, played by the winsome British actress Shirley Henderson. The maid delivers clever little observations directly to the camera, as she cleans up after her employers.
Sally Potter has said she began writing “Yes” after Sept. 11, 2001, as a way of saying something in an atmosphere of hate and fear. I can only say that I hope she’s worked it all out, and moves onto something else – next time, perhaps, not in rhyme.
Joan Allen and Simon Abkarian in “Yes.”
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