Seen as part of the Three Rivers Film festival, surprisingly there were only 40 people in the audience given the notoriety hurricane Katrina gate to the city of New Orleans, and here, in perfect timing, appears a movie shot on location in pre-Katrina New Orleans. The story is about an old relationship re-kindling in two mature adults. Both are unhappily married, and to show the why of such unhappiness, the story has to show a husband slapping his daughter, and a wife not wanting to have a romantic dinner on Friday night because she is a workaholic. Thus, the two unhappy wife1 and husband2 find each other and true love is found. OK. So far so good. But then, to add weight to the story, a few additions are made: wife2 has an abortion without telling husband2, and the latter finds out by reading a medical bill in the mail. Husband2 is unhappy, wife2 explains "do you think I enjoyed it?". Then, to widen the crack, wife2 says she wants to go to L.A. to start a new job (hey, women ARE allowed to make career choices too) and husband2 says she can go but without the kids, as he and the two children will be staying in New Orleans. Well, there is a little problem here: if a man choose to move from New Orleans to LA for a career move, would have the woman have had a say? no. But flip the sides, and voilà': there is a problem. And the sensitive issue of abortion, why make it part of the story? a woman has made a choice, in great angst (she is shown weeping in the shower), and hiding it from the husband is causing a crack in the marriage. I don't think it was necessary to bring such a sensitive topic into the story. It's too daring in today's milieu of mainstream America. Leave such topics to European cinema. We are in America here, we don't want to see or hear this. Aside from this, the cinematography is pleasant, bright houses, colorful canvases in a artist bohemian studio, outdoor cafés. But the pace is somewhat slow, and it lacks a cohesive something. A better formula of a relationship-based story is "You can Count on me" (2000).
