Nothing’s missing in Parker Posey’s translation|The engaging-enough romantic comedy “Broken English” focuses on Nora (Parker Posey), a mid-30s Manhattan career gal given to panic attacks and excessive drinking. But then you might be too if you attracted the kind of men that Nora does,
a parade of losers and users distinguishable only by the methods with which they lie to Nora and themselves. So maybe Nora’s mother (Gena Rowlands) is right. Maybe the “good ones get snapped up” by the time women hit Nora’s age. Though judging from the marriage of Nora’s best friend Audrey (Drea de Matteo), being single in the city isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the world.
“Broken English,” written and directed by Zoe Cassavetes (the daughter of Rowlands and the late filmmaker John Cassavetes), can occasionally feel like an art-house episode of “Sex in the City.” But Cassavetes gives the movie a bittersweet truthfulness that distinguishes it from the pack, allowing Posey the chance to play Nora as not just another bewildered singleton with a shoe fetish but also as a woman realizing that happiness and healing can only come from within.
Of course it doesn’t hurt Nora’s cause to have a charming and handsome Frenchman pursuing her with an intensity matching Pepe Le Pew, sans odor. Nora meets Julian (Melvil Poupaud) at a Fourth of July party. She distrusts his sincerity – with her romantic history, you would too – but his passion and soulfulness soon wear her down. She’s in love.
Naturally there’s a catch, a complication that takes Nora out of her element and, in some respects, forces her to face herself for the first time in her life. Cassavetes handles this with a subtlety that’s free of cutie-pie theatrics, imbuing “Broken English” with an underlying sadness not normally found in the genre.
And if the movie’s ending duplicates “Before Sunset,” right down to the dialogue, at least Cassavetes has the taste to crib from the best. “Broken English” is a promising debut for Cassavetes and something of a career-best for Posey. They make a great couple.
“Broken English”
PG-13 for some sexual content, brief drug use, language |1 hour, 37 minutes|ROMANTIC COMEDY|Written and directed by Zoe Cassavetes; photography by John Pirozzi; starring Parker Posey, Melvil Poupaud, Drea de Matteo, Gena Rowlands, Justin Theroux|Opens today at Landmark’s Chez Artiste.
