Movie Of The Week

The Age

Thursday December 11, 2008

Scott Murray

The Girl in the Cafe (2005)

ABC1, Sunday, 9pm

DESPITE a string of delightful romantic comedies to his name, from Four Weddings and a Funeral to Love Actually, scriptwriter Richard Curtis became increasingly concerned that his generation, which once promised such hope, had become tired and ineffectual. Curtis decided to agitate by writing a film that would be shown on the BBC just before the 2005 G8 Conference in Gleneagles. Its aim was to pressure delegates into tackling African poverty and debt. The resultant film, The Girl in the Cafe, directed by David Yates, cleverly fuses Curtis's social conscience with his unshakeable belief that love is all around us and can make us great.

Lawrence (Bill Nighy) is a high-echelon civil servant. He has no life other than in his work, personal loneliness etched deeply in his face and every awkward gesture. Sneaking out of his office, he goes to a crowded cafe. The only spare seat is opposite a young woman, Gina (Kelly Macdonald), seemingly lost in her thoughts. He timidly ventures forward and she politely lets him sit. In faltering conversation, full of dramatic pauses that would do Harold Pinter proud, these two introverted souls cautiously seek out what, if anything, they have in common.

Lawrence is about to be sent to Reykjavik for a G8 conference to tackle crucial world issues. Impulsively, he asks Gina to accompany him. It is only in Reykjavik, in a city dwarfed by the eerie magnificence of its concrete cathedral, Hallgrimskirkja, that Lawrence understands who Gina is and what she stands for. (The scenes of revelation are some of the most excruciating and uncomfortable you will ever sit through.)

Lawrence and Gina are separated in age by nearly three decades. The baggage of middle-age responsibility has made Lawrence timid, whereas Gina speaks with the carefree confidence of youth. Curtis believes that societies must abandon their fearful marshalling of citizens into similar-age groupings. It stifles the cross-generational pollination of ideas and hope that invigorate societies and their cultures. Lawrence and Gina are a symbol of how we can salvage our world.

This is a beautifully acted, delicate and rather special movie.

PICK OF THE WEEK

The Thick of It

Friday, 9.40pm on ABC1

THE opening innings of season two of this 2005 political satire from the BBC is sharp and funny.

Jim Schembri, page 42

© 2008 The Age

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