The characters in this idle drama, directed by Eleanor Coppola, seem mostly content. That’s the problem.
One of the great comforts in life is the assurance that misery can be interesting. Contentment doesn’t necessarily provide onlookers (or audiences) with the pleasure of great gossip, drama or insight, and the characters in the idle drama “Love Is Love Is Love,” directed by Eleanor Coppola, mostly seem like content, happy people.
The film is a collection of three largely unrelated short stories, which are each marked with their own title cards. First there is “Two For Dinner,” in which a filmmaker (Chris Messina) who is on location in Montana meets his wife (Joanne Whalley) for a remote date over video chat. In “Sailing Lesson,” Kathy Baker and Marshall Bell play a long-married couple who rekindle the fantasy of romance by playacting as the kind of people who might set sail for a daytime tryst.
The final short story in this modest collection is “Late Lunch,” which is also the longest sequence of the film. In it, Caroline (Maya Kazan) holds a dinner in remembrance of her late mother, attended by all of her mother’s nearest and dearest friends.
Coppola, 85, focuses her camera on characters as they reminisce in long monologues, which are clearly relished by the film’s accomplished cast, including dinner guests Cybill Shepherd, Rosanna Arquette and Rita Wilson. The tone and pace of the movie corresponds to these sedentary conversations among people who acknowledge their age, and who have had time to find peace.
But the cumulative effect of so much enlightened sitting around is that the movie doesn’t move. There is a lack of action, both visually and emotionally. The characters are never unseated by a revelation. When they speak, it feels like they have waited their turn.
Love Is Love Is Love
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 31 minutes. In theaters.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
