28 HOTEL ROOMS
US, 2013, 80 minutes, Colour.
Chris Messina, Malin Ireland.
Directed by Matt Ross.
This is a film about a relationship, a relationship between and a man and woman who are not married to each other but have bonds to other people.
The structure of the film is to have 28 sequences, each in a hotel room, each starting with the number on the door. In a film of this brief length, each sequence is comparatively short. It is an impression, various pieces of a jigsaw, the relationship of characters who are simply called The Man and The Woman. They are played by Chris Messina who acts as Executive Producer of the film, and Malin Ireland.
The film begins graphically, an initial sexual encounter in the first of the rooms. Quite a number of the sequences are comparatively explicit with nudity, impressing on the audience the reality of this relationship, physical, emotional, psychological. But, the relationship is between two confused people, struggling to understand what is going on in their relationship, how it compares with their relationships beyond the hotel rooms.
To this extent, the film is interesting, has a sense of reality about it despite the contrivance of the meetings in the rooms, and makes the protagonists ask questions of themselves as well as challenging the audience.
The Man is an author, with a successful book, writing another which then receives bad reviews, although The Woman is very supportive. The Man has a number of relationships and partial commitments but does not marry. At the end, he settles down and becomes an English teacher in a college, something which he likes and enjoys.
The Woman is, in fact, married, and the audience wonders why she is in this relationship with The Man. At times, so does she. She is confused in her lack of self-confidence. Her career is in business, with figures and documents, giving advice, enabling her company to be efficient and to make money. This is something which The Man criticises in comparison with his own work where he tries to be creative.
The Woman is also very emotional, a great deal of laughing, giggling, quite an amount of crying, something which The Man acknowledges but his feelings are much more internal.
There is a great deal of tenderness in many of the love scenes, the physical communication, the emotional communication, the satisfaction of their being together, even just lying side by side. Frailties and vulnerablities. But, of course, there are moments of tension, The Woman not responding to the text messages that The Man sends, their snatching movements of intimacy which cannot always be planned.
The Woman often says that she loves her husband, not describing him in any detail, but sometimes a significant presence in their meetings. Then the woman becomes pregnant, has a baby girl, Emma, is concerned about her, even to making phone calls about babysitting.
This means that years pass, indicated sometimes by The Man growing the station or a beard, then clean-shaven. And the months of pregnancy and the birth of the daughter, and the touch that the woman might have liked to have had the baby with The Man.
The ending is inconclusive, as might be expected from this kind of dramatic exercise and exploration.
The film is a challenge for the audience, whether identifying with The Man or The Woman, approving of what happens between them, disapproving of their relationship, but an opportunity to reflect on the nature of sexuality, passion, love, fidelity and infidelity, commitment and partial commitment.
