An
edited film review by Brian Orndorf for blu-ray.com on March 13, 2014.
The Face of Love boasts a terrific
premise that promises to inspect the difficulty of the grieving process,
especially when faced with the comfort of the familiar versus the reality of
the unknown. The potential for honest heartache is great, but a few ideas break
the concentration of the picture as it enters its third act. At the very least,
there’s phenomenal work from Annette
Bening, who invests in the frailties of human emotion, and Ed Harris, showing uncharacteristic
warmth in a difficult role. Co-writer/director Arie Posin almost nails the subtlety of temptation, delivering an
hour of compelling, provocative drama. He doesn’t stick the landing, which ends
up the most important element of this interesting effort.
Having lost her husband of three decades during a trip to Mexico, Nikki (Annette Bening) has spent the last five years in a haze, unable to mourn the death of her spouse in a meaningful way. Depending on neighbor Roger (Robin Williams), a widower himself, for company, while watching her adult daughter (Jess Weixler) struggle in a relationship, Nikki discovers Tom (Ed Harris) while visiting a museum. Her late husband’s doppelganger, Tom is an art professor also having difficulty breaking away from his marital failure, finding Nikki’s strange behavior inviting as the two carefully begin a relationship. Desperate to keep Tom a secret, Nikki struggles with her decision to live out a fantasy, offered an opportunity to spend time with her deceased love once again, while her object of desire has no idea about her motives or headspace as they work to create something special in a unique situation of fraud.
The Face of Love has the feeling of a filmmaker bursting at the seams to tell a different story, taking a look at aging, loss, and recovery, and all the chaos that surrounds the death of a spouse. It’s sincere work, taking Nikki’s plight seriously as she struggles to make sense of the world now that half her heart has been torn away, left with an empty house of memories and a friend in Roger, who can’t conquer his own grief. This pocket of depression is accurately depicted and tenderly developed, treating Nikki as a wanderer failing to find traction as others root for her to return to life as she once knew it. She buries herself in work and maintains an interest in art, leaving her open to a surprise in Tom that snaps her back to attention, but for all the wrong reasons.
For the opening hour, The Face of Love maintains unease with Nikki’s decision to pursue Tom, watching the trembling woman struggle to communicate with the art teacher and retired painter while processing the miracle standing before her. It’s such a fascinating premise handled with equal parts awe and instability by Posin, who’s careful to maintain Nikki’s awareness of impropriety, juggling the voices of doubt with her swelling heart. Character beats are tended to without derailing the whole effort, watching Roger snap with bitterness as Nikki finds a new partner that isn’t him, while Tom confides to his ex-wife (Amy Brenneman), who’s battling cancer. The sitcom-esque tendencies of the story are held at arm’s length for the first two acts, avoiding overt cliché to find the pure emotion of the moment, as Nikki and Tom taste love again after a long break, only the motivations driving this relationship are dubious at best.
Bening and Harris share solid chemistry in The Face of Love, creating an intriguing blend of volatility and warmth as Nikki and Tom get to know each other, sharing lives in a protective manner. The actors care for the frailties of the characters, emphasizing discomfort as the union moves forward. Bening is especially powerful here, seizing a particular pitch of loneliness and grief that’s credible, allowing the audience to trust Nikki’s faulty instincts as she rebuilds her marriage with passions from a stranger.
The Face of Love takes a severe turn into hysterics in its third act, killing the momentum of the piece and its psychological reach. In place of a thoughtful appreciation of the fallacy in play, the screenplay elects primal therapy, turning the whole resolution into a mess of poor communication and uncharacteristic actions. The decline in dramatic potency is alarming, almost tanking the entire effort with its unreasonable display of histrionics. It’s a shame Posin doesn’t have the gumption to carry the picture to a more natural conclusion of confession, but he’s out to break hearts, not satisfy with an essential display of reason. [Orndorf’s rating: 3 stars out of 5]
The Face of Love is available free on tubi and tubitv.com, on DVD and on the Kanopy.com streaming service (see if your library is a member).
Labels: drama, mystery, romance, tragedy
IMDb 62/100
MetaScore (critics=51, viewers=65)
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=52, viewers=58)
Brian Orndorf review
Having lost her husband of three decades during a trip to Mexico, Nikki (Annette Bening) has spent the last five years in a haze, unable to mourn the death of her spouse in a meaningful way. Depending on neighbor Roger (Robin Williams), a widower himself, for company, while watching her adult daughter (Jess Weixler) struggle in a relationship, Nikki discovers Tom (Ed Harris) while visiting a museum. Her late husband’s doppelganger, Tom is an art professor also having difficulty breaking away from his marital failure, finding Nikki’s strange behavior inviting as the two carefully begin a relationship. Desperate to keep Tom a secret, Nikki struggles with her decision to live out a fantasy, offered an opportunity to spend time with her deceased love once again, while her object of desire has no idea about her motives or headspace as they work to create something special in a unique situation of fraud.
The Face of Love has the feeling of a filmmaker bursting at the seams to tell a different story, taking a look at aging, loss, and recovery, and all the chaos that surrounds the death of a spouse. It’s sincere work, taking Nikki’s plight seriously as she struggles to make sense of the world now that half her heart has been torn away, left with an empty house of memories and a friend in Roger, who can’t conquer his own grief. This pocket of depression is accurately depicted and tenderly developed, treating Nikki as a wanderer failing to find traction as others root for her to return to life as she once knew it. She buries herself in work and maintains an interest in art, leaving her open to a surprise in Tom that snaps her back to attention, but for all the wrong reasons.
For the opening hour, The Face of Love maintains unease with Nikki’s decision to pursue Tom, watching the trembling woman struggle to communicate with the art teacher and retired painter while processing the miracle standing before her. It’s such a fascinating premise handled with equal parts awe and instability by Posin, who’s careful to maintain Nikki’s awareness of impropriety, juggling the voices of doubt with her swelling heart. Character beats are tended to without derailing the whole effort, watching Roger snap with bitterness as Nikki finds a new partner that isn’t him, while Tom confides to his ex-wife (Amy Brenneman), who’s battling cancer. The sitcom-esque tendencies of the story are held at arm’s length for the first two acts, avoiding overt cliché to find the pure emotion of the moment, as Nikki and Tom taste love again after a long break, only the motivations driving this relationship are dubious at best.
Bening and Harris share solid chemistry in The Face of Love, creating an intriguing blend of volatility and warmth as Nikki and Tom get to know each other, sharing lives in a protective manner. The actors care for the frailties of the characters, emphasizing discomfort as the union moves forward. Bening is especially powerful here, seizing a particular pitch of loneliness and grief that’s credible, allowing the audience to trust Nikki’s faulty instincts as she rebuilds her marriage with passions from a stranger.
The Face of Love takes a severe turn into hysterics in its third act, killing the momentum of the piece and its psychological reach. In place of a thoughtful appreciation of the fallacy in play, the screenplay elects primal therapy, turning the whole resolution into a mess of poor communication and uncharacteristic actions. The decline in dramatic potency is alarming, almost tanking the entire effort with its unreasonable display of histrionics. It’s a shame Posin doesn’t have the gumption to carry the picture to a more natural conclusion of confession, but he’s out to break hearts, not satisfy with an essential display of reason. [Orndorf’s rating: 3 stars out of 5]
The Face of Love is available free on tubi and tubitv.com, on DVD and on the Kanopy.com streaming service (see if your library is a member).
Labels: drama, mystery, romance, tragedy
IMDb 62/100
MetaScore (critics=51, viewers=65)
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=52, viewers=58)
Brian Orndorf review
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