Susan Granger’s review of “Yes” (Sony Pictures Classics release)
Designed for those who relish unusual, experimental works, Sally Potter’s “Yes” is – perhaps – the only film with dialogue in iambic pentameter. Rhyme is the big gimmick here, not reason. The story centers on an unlikely relationship between a frustrated Irish-American scientist (Joan Allen), who is trapped in a miserable marriage to an adulterous politician (Sam Neill), and a Lebanese refugee (Simon Abkarian), a former doctor who is working as a waiter/cook in a restaurant. After an accidental encounter at a banquet in London, they embark on a passionate affair, only to discover that their cultural differences will, inevitably, drive them apart. Idiosyncratic writer/director Sally Potter (“Orlando”) is obviously anti-American, dealing in the kind of heavy-handed symbols that never clouded “Crash,” another recent examination of race relations. Here, she juxtaposes this thoroughly Westernized woman and a gentle Islamic man from Beirut. Predictably, they bicker with the shallow American looking down on the Arabic world – while the discordant epilogue seems to be tacked on as a Hollywood ending. What’s most remarkable is the effortless way in which gifted Joan Allen handles the cadence of the rhyming dialogue. Sounding neither like a recitation of Shakespeare or the stories of Dr. Seuss, she delivers Potter’s often absurd lines with a total lack of self-consciousness. Following her lead, Simon Abkarian, Sam Neill, Shirley Henderson (as the housekeeper) and Sheila Hancock (as an aunt from Belfast) acquit themselves admirably. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Yes” is a stylishly poetic, curious 5. Unless this risky linguistic endeavor, most suitable for film festivals, truly intrigues you, I’d say “no” – and wait for the video.
