Helena Bonham CarterConversation(s) With Other Women

SPOILER ALERT: This review has no spoilers. If you don't want a spoiler, don't read any other reviews, because virtually all of them reveal a critical dramatic twist that works a lot better if you don't know it's coming.Amazon's presentation of "Conversations With Other Women" is horrendous. There are actually two very different versions of this movie. The theater release, which is titled "Conversation(s) With Other Women" and is available on DVD, is drastically different from the streaming version. Amazon has combined these two movies into one listing so it is impossible to review them separately. I'm almost certain the dialogue is the same in the two releases, but they are radically different visually. The original is filmed entirely in split screen, with one camera on the man and one on the woman. The version that's currently available on Prime has been re-edited so it looks like it's conventionally filmed."Conversations" has a very talky script, consisting almost entirely of conversation between two people, conversation that is too scintillating and clever to be totally believable, but it's immensely enjoyable for those of us who are into that sort of thing. The focus of the plot is totally on a couple's relationship. The dramatic twist I talked about spices up the dialogue nicely.The focus in a literal sense is almost entirely on the characters and almost never on the sets. Not counting flashbacks, I count seven sets: a ballroom in a nice hotel, a room in the hotel, the roof of the hotel, a hall, an elevator, and two cabs. "Conversations" was probably never in the conversation for set design awards.With a little work, the movie could be adapted into a play with just two sets. This is such an intimate movie, I think live actors on a small stage could elevate the screenplay to a world-class theater experience. Anyway, the writer should do the adaptation if for no other reason than to get the resume item.I have two complaints: The movie drags some in the middle third, although overall I think it's first-rate writing and acting. Less important, I don't like the title. The word "conversations" fits the movie perfectly, but "other women" is senseless.Concerning the original all-split-screen version, I watched it after getting very familiar with the streaming version, and I still found that following the intense dialogue and simultaneously processing two screen images at once was a lot of work, but it was worth it. Maybe people who regularly watch complicated movies and play a lot of video games have synapses that fire fast enough to keep up easily. However, I'm more enthusiastic about this version because it's so radically innovative.The director's commentary on the DVD is fascinating because he talks a lot about dealing with the split-screen filming and the thinking behind it. A short he made to pitch the film is also fascinating. A kind of technical short about some special effects made my eyes glaze over. The "interview" with the lead actors is the usual gushing about what a fabulous movie this is and how everybody loves and respects everybody else. We get to hear a little bit from the actors about how the unusual split-screen approach affected their work. I would like to have more thoughts about that and less gushing.

I've been looking for the split screen version for so long, and have bought different DVDs in vain. But this is the real split screen version! Thank you seller!

Warning...spoilersThis is an intriguing movie. I normally don't like films that are all dialogue, but "Conversations with Other Women" hooked me pretty quickly. I think it's all down to the fact that Helena Bonham-Carter and Aaron Eckhart having a great deal of charisma and chemistry together and the fact that the dialogue rings true and sparkles.As for the split screen depiction, initially I found myself hoping it would go away, but once I settled into the movie, I didn't mind it and thought it sometimes added to the story (but it would be interesting to see a version where most everything was done on one screen).Turning to the story, it's pretty simple. Bonham-Carter and Eckhart meet at a wedding. At first, they way they talk, you would think they don't know each other. But then you start to realize and the film reveals that they were once married and that marriage ended with Bonham-Carter's character packing up and moving to London and marrying an older man. Eventually, the two (ex)lovers retire to her hotel room and have sex and talk about the past and the future.I think it's a testimony to the chemistry that the two stars have and the dialogue of the film that I did not find their actions sleazy or reprehensible (Bonham-Carter's character cheating on her husband and Eckhart cheating on his much younger girlfriend). Through their conversations and the flashbacks shown on the split screen, we see just how much love and passion once existed between them. I'm left with the opinion that their divorce happened so quickly and they were cut off from each other so rapidly, their love didn't die but just went on hiatus...only to come back at full burn when they met again at the wedding.I'm left wondering what would happen after the story ended. Frankly, it's hard to see how either of them could have just gone back to where they were before (for example, Bonham-Carter's character's protestations that she's happy in her life in London ring false...and Eckhart makes it very clear that he never got over her). I'd like to think that in the fictional world where these two lovers exist, Bonham-Carter's character did return to London and wound up her marriage there before coming back to Eckhart's character in New York. I couldn't help but notice that the split screen finally united at the very end of the movie and perhaps that symbolizes a hopeful future.The movie isn't perfect. I thought that a bit of the sex scene in the hotel was rather graphic (not for me, but older and more conservative people would probably be put off by it). Also, the idea that the two characters would have identical cell phones that would allow Bonham-Carter's character to answer a call from Eckhart's girlfriend seemed a bit improbable (as did the idea that the girlfriend would not have instantly realized why this had happened). But those aren't significant enough flaws to take away from the rewarding experience that watching the film was for me (and I bought a copy from amazon.com right before posting this).

The movie has a dual perception going on. and truthfully it is very hard to watch, things happen so quickly and they flip positions until you just get confused as to whom you are watching. I wasn't a real fan of this type of movie. It was mostly dialogue and went around in circles. Jumped from past to present, gave a very unclear picture of what was actually happening, The young man and the adult man weren't really cast very well, it was very very hard to imagine that the young Erik would look the same as the older Erik. But that is a small thing. It was a nice move in a way, but it didn't go anywhere, and at the end, he really wanted her and she was going home to her family and then in the cab he asked are you married and she said NO. So I was left totally confused. I hate movies about people that are so messed up. She was never really a nice person not when young and not older. Very self centered.

This isn't the original version of the film. The entire point of the movie is to have 2 frames showing at once. It unfortunately seems as though all HD copies of this movie are of the single-frame TV edit mentioned on the Trivia section of the imdb page. It seriously ruins the movie and all charm and purpose is lost. I wish that the blu-ray copies of this movie would advertise that they aren't actually the original movie. The customer reviews from the German blu-ray are saying that it's not the original version as well. Those are the only 2 HD copies I'm aware of. Looks like I'm buying this movie AGAIN on DVD. I can't believe the director let this happen and I am seriously disappointed.

yes, I thought it pretty cool, and I also thought wow he's getting somewhere with persistence even if not with his cringing chat up lines, so there's hope for me yet. She was hard work though, and I think I would have gone for the girl in the lift.*** about to ruin the whole plot if you haven't seen it !! ... ***Their whole previous history thing together was consequently an incredible let down, so he wasn't being heroically persistent after all, if anything he was being a bit of a creep, and I kept thinking why don't you leave her alone and cringingly creep along with somebody else?!! I'm sure the writer guy, who I've forgotten, maybe it was Hans Canosa, could have come up with a more satisfying conclusion to all this arty cleverness than with nothing more than an old buddies reunion? Heck, I could do better than that!!Yes, definitely cool, but not one I think I'll be watching again any time soon

Essentially a dialogue, two people meet at a wedding and they've got history, possibly unfinished business, seemingly unhappy lives. The film unpacks that history and creates consequences for both of them.Long shots so the actors have to act. Always good. The split screen creates extra viewing perspectives that works quite well.It's a nice study, easily watchable again. I have no idea how the film got its title as it really doesn't give any guide as to what you are going to see.

Brilliant movie, the direction and cinematography very unique

I couldn't get into this folm, after 40 mi utes if watching the split screen I found it annoying. I was so looking forward to watching it.I know a lot of people enjoyed it, but just not for me! Fast delivery though, thanks Amazon