The Song of Lunch (2010)

Really Surprised!

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Blistering performances.

An existential parable of a wistful journey to ones heady youth with the excitement and bitterness of the time trapped in the mind. A former romance is re-evaluated by the rose coloured filter of time but confronted by the present. Time has moved on but the past has trapped the author. This is wonderfully written and played. Apparently not one word was added or removed from the book/poem of the same name. The words and style encapsulated an era, a culture and a place. From my perspective it was authentic but for a North American audience the language may not travel as well.To enjoy, ignore the characters they are not important, the moment you root for one character over the other the poem will fail (they are called He and She). What is important is the story of the words they are saying to each other. For me I strongly identified with the nostalgic myopia. However I wonder how a younger audience would embrace it? My only criticism was that the colour grading was a little cute.I was captivated by it.

It hasn't come to my knowledge yet that this short movie is acted out of a poem, and I have no interest in contemporary poems to go take a peek in the book. But I gotta say, I've read a lot of negative reviews here and I wonder why. But art is controversial, that's for sure.This piece of work is beautiful, peaceful in a sense, and has a lot of emotion. Which is something mainstream movies nowadays are not aiming at anymore. Just old people back flashed their old lives. Just an old man being nostalgic in an old place and haven't been able to move on since he lost the love of his life. Now that's an POV because from her point of view maybe the story will be totally reversed and he will appeared as an arse, which I don't really care. Some has mentioned how the feeling is so horrible it almost haunted me, I was so scared when I was watching him getting drunk and I know almost right away what's gonna happen. Just old and typical stuff, nothing new, so true, so real. And people move on like that. But I understand the feeling constantly, even though I'm not that old, but that feeling of loss I do bring. I have watched this and then listened to it again and it made me feel very, very bitter hearing Alan's voice telling the story and I feel very bad. This could be you, this could be me, this could be anyone, and I know this has happened, is happening, and will happen to lots of people out there. I don't know what art is supposed to mean, I think Frankfurt intellectuals might have more saying in this than me, for they spent a certain amount of time to argue whether or not art is supposed to enhance the creation of the elitist or art is for the majority of people. Or they would be arguing the same thing, art for the sake of art or art for the sake of humanity.

Less than an hour long, this is an interesting type of "different" film. It is actually a poem, recited by the protagonist, as we see the lunch meeting acted out.Alan Rickman, one of the fine underrated actors of our time is the man, the protagonist. He has arranged a lunch date with his old flame, Emma Thompson as the lady. They had not seen each other in quite a long time. In the film they are only known as 'He' and 'She'.I happen to like both Rickman and Thompson and here they are good together, but actually separate. It is clear that She has let their relationship go a long time ago but He hasn't. She comes across as happy and interesting, He comes across as bitter and tense. She politely takes a glass of wine, and 'nurses' it, while He drinks too much and has to order a second bottle.Frankly I don't recall the text of the poem, but it fit as I watched the film. Interesting short film, less than one hour, a contrast of personalities.

The title of this review just about says it all. Except, of course, that the two former lovers are portrayed by Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman, who could probably do a satisfying reading of the telephone book. Except that Rickman's character gets drunk and disappears to take a nap on the roof, there isn't much action in this film. The drama lies entirely in the subtle (and not so subtle) interactions of He and She. He appears to be a disappointed academic who would like to rekindle his relationship with She. She is cool, sophisticated, cautious and soon repelled by He's behavior. (Eventually She pays the bill and leaves. ( He, having awakened from his nap finds the table empty.) Not much of a plot to be sure, and the dialog is nothing special. But it is ever a pleasure to watch Thompson and Rickman in action and they inhabit their roles with characteristic conviction. The viewer learns a lot about He and She, not so much from what is said or done, but from how the two actors play off one another.