Given the commonplaceness of the subject of the movie, one may have thought that the director would have liked to address the question of adultery from a possibly new (moral, artistic) angle. This was my reason for watching the movie, and I had to be disappointed.
The characters had incredibly little depth, with the notable exception of the lover (the dentist) whom I found to give a very sensible performance. As far as the main character is concerned, there is very little struggle, care for other's feelings, humbleness. One may view his character as a depiction of the stereotypical "romanian man". The Romanian Man whose masculinity has to be praised, for whom it is completely normal to have both a wife and a lover, and who has to be congratulated if he decides to do anything about it. I am not sure how many such stereotypical "romanian men" are there in Romania (possibly few, but the character did ring a bell), but I would say the main character makes an interesting reflection on current society.
As has already been remarked, the conversation is *boring*, there is no spark of life, of joy, of complicity among these middle-class busy people. No love either. Is this a depiction of Romania's today middle-class marital relations? Where all the conversation revolves around work and the last things we bought, but there's no talk of the soul? Is this why the action takes place around Christmas, the pinnacle of consumerism of the year?
The reason that I am giving the movie 5 points is that the performances of the actors are, in fact, very good and the characters are natural and believable. The opening scene is truly refreshing and the scene at the doctor's carries a very palpable tension. The problem is the remaining hour...
In conclusion, I found the above movie very plain, boring, and somewhat depressing for the reasons described above. Also, it was filmed in a very factual, realistic manner with no questions raised. So, then, my question is: what is the message of this movie?
