KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?

Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Melissa 2 stars for realism, and 1 star for not being another depressing movie about some drug-addicted street orphans (you know the type) but that's about it. I'll break it down scene by scene without giving any plot spoilers, which is easy, since there is barely any plot. The storyline you see on the IMDb main page is the whole story.The film starts with the main character (Paul) and his mistress cuddling and talking in bed for about 10 minutes. Then he shops with his wife for Christmas gifts, trying shirts, looking for a snowboard, etc. There's a few scenes in cars, the most eventful of which Paul tries to dissuade his wife from going to the dental clinic.Then there's the dental clinic scene, a scene of over 20 minutes, in real time, with no cuts, from waiting room to second room to examination/surgery room. The doctor explains the situation (their child needs braces), how to use them, the future, etc. to both parents, with the child sometimes interrupting or needing explanation. The parents need time to decide, and there's no cuts, we just wait and see. The only interesting thing here is that the dentist is Paul's mistress, so the director decided that we need to see 20 or so minutes of this.We see Paul's domestic life, having dinner, his wife helping him shave the back of his head, random boring stuff. Then Paul goes to talk to his mistress, who's unhappy with the situation.At one hour four minutes into this 1:39 hour film, nothing has happened yet. We just know that Paul has a mistress, his wife doesn't know and their child needs braces.As the synopsis says, and if I may "spoil" it, he tells his wife and after asking him the who/what/when/where, she tells him that their marriage is over. There's one packing scene (where he packs his stuff to leave) and a family dinner where the married couple keeps up the pretense for the sake of their child.In short, a man has an affair with his daughter's dentist. He tells his wife, who then asks for a divorce. That's it.Many European film makers have taken the (reactionary) position that European cinema is the opposite of Hollywood cinema. So if Hollywood makes a movie that's all fast cuts, shaky cam, action, witty one-liners, big music and bigger events, then continental film makers want to make something with no cuts whatsoever, real time, long-take, no dialogue, all about facial expressions and silence. Both philosophies have reached the point of caricature and parody. I would not be surprised to see a European film where it's a black-and- white, no-dialogue, single-take 2 hour film of a man having an espresso and a pack of cigarettes in silence as he contemplates something that's only mentioned in the title of the film.

Red-125 The Romanian film "Marti, Dupa Craciun" (2010) was shown in the United States with the title, "Tuesday, After Christmas." The movie is co-written and directed by Radu Muntean.Many movies show female full frontal nudity, so the fact that this occurs in this movie is no great surprise. What is surprising is that the film opens with two of the principals in bed. They have obviously just made love, and what we hear and see is their casual, languid talk right afterward. The woman has no reason to cover herself, so we see the nudity within the first minute or two of the film. Definitely different.The man, Paul, is played by Mimi Branescu. (Apparently Mimi can be a man's name in Romania.) He looks and acts like an Eastern European George Clooney, although he's not as handsome as Clooney. We learn that the woman, played by Maria Popistasu, is Raluca, who has been having an affair with Paul for months. She is certainly young and beautiful. (In fact, all of her is beautiful, as we learn in the first few minutes of the film.) What sets Raluca apart from most "other women" is that she's a dentist. (I can't remember ever seeing a movie where one of the women actors is a dentist.) In fact, it was through dentistry that she and Paul met, because Paul's daughter is her patient. Mirela Oprisor plays Adriana, Paul's wife. She too is very beautiful, although that aspect of her appearance is played down in the movie. She too is intelligent, and she loves Paul.That's the basic plot of the film. Paul has to decide. It's Christmas, and, in the context of the film, one of the women is going to get Paul for a Christmas present, and one is going to get left by Paul as her present.The film proceeds almost like a documentary. We meet Raluca's mother, Paul's parents, Adriana's sister, and some family friends. Paul and Adriana take their daughter to Raluca's clinic. Obviously, Paul and Raluca are exquisitely aware of the awkwardness of the situation, but, equally obviously, Adriana is not.All of these essentially normal activities take place with the clock ticking--in Paul's mind and in ours. Either way, this is going to end badly for someone. We just don't know who that someone will be, and what will happen after Paul decides. It's not a great movie if you want violent action or broad dramatic strokes. It is a great movie if you want to see a portrayal of normal people in an all-too-normal situation.I enjoyed this movie and recommend it. The only weakness is that it wasn't clear to me what qualities Paul had that would make both women want him as their partner. He's attractive enough, apparently virile enough, and fairly well off financially. However, Raluca knows he's cheating on his wife. What makes her think he won't cheat on her? Adrianna knows that he's away a lot, and, even when he's there, he's not particularly loving or caring. Still, there it is. Two women want him, and only one will have him.We saw this film at the excellent Dryden Theatre at George Eastman House in Rochester. It will work well on DVD, because all of the important scenes take place indoors. I think it's definitely worth finding and seeing.

stefanstatescu What I loved most about this movie is it's realism. The actors give a great performance and it's just the way it's supposed to be. Everything feels real, the arguing, the conversations, the situations. It all flows naturally and you can relate to the characters and think: "wow, I've been there," or "I've definitely seen that before." The tension, the fights between Paul and his wife are the real thing. Drama is not forced, it's not stupid, etc...I do not know if a non-Romanian viewer will feel the same but I thought this movie portrayed life exactly as it is, without gloss or forced sub-plots, and that is very rarely seen. It may be a cultural thing however. Probably American culture is very different , and that's why guns, pedophiles, crazy driving, genius scientists, blacks and drugs, stock exchange, apocalypse, bruce willis saving the world, Asian crime gangs, etc (things that have no place in Romanian society) never feel real to me.Anyway, I'm sure this movie will not feel real only to Romanians, but to many other peoples around the globe.Btw, there is a user review by mmguica (from the United States) in which he/she says: "The characters had incredibly little depth." I totally disagree. Let's take the main character. There is not much depth shown, that is true, but I(and I'm sure other Romanians) instantly understand the character, He is a middle class man working hard and trying to bring good money. There is not much to him because he is a normal Romanian. He is not excessive, he is not crazy, gay, unstable, dramatic. He is a normal, emotionally stable man that's trying to support a household. And there are millions like him.

mmguica 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?