The Face of Love

**Spoiler Alert**
Dir. Arie Posin. Starring: Annette Bening, Ed Harris and Robin Williams
A film that could unfortunately vanish from American screens before it can be appreciated is Arie Posin's The Face of Love, for which he also shares a writing credit.

Annette Bening plays Nikki, the wife of an architect, played by Ed Harris. A happy marriage is disrupted by the untimely death of her husband in a drowning accident during a vacation in Mexico. The story picks up 5 years later as Nikki, with the help of a grieving widower played by Robin Williams, recovers from her loss.

Wandering through an outdoor market one day, Nikki sees a man who is a splitting image of her deceased husband (also played by Ed Harris). Entranced, she strikes up a conversation and after learning that he is an artist and an instructor at a local college, she convinces him to teach her privately. In doing so, her fascination and passion for her former husband is aroused and transferred to her new lover; which becomes increasingly problematic for all parties concerned.

Refusing to divulge to Tom his uncanny resemblance to her former husband Garrett, he is perplexed by her odd behaviour toward him as her conscience gets the better of her at moments.

Another wrinkle in her newfound romance is the problem of introducing Tom to her daughter, who has just asked her mother to allow her to return home after a failed romance. Like her daughter, Nikki's neighbor and partner in shared grief, Roger (Robin Williams) is also denied contact with Tom. If Nikki's deception isn't trouble enough, her life is further complicated by Roger declaration of love for her.

What follows is a slow unravelling of the knotty plot, which predictably leads to bewilderment, shock and dismay by all involved.

Posin's direction plays a key role in the story. Instead of broad, medium shots we might see on television, Posin employs tight close-ups of Bening's and Harris' faces to capture inner turmoil and latent, emotional wounds. Every line and facial groove in the actor's faces comes into sharp relief; an astonishing and admirable lack of vanity often seen in French cinema but seldom so on American movie screens. And those faces, which reveal so much loss and pain, propel the story; a risky move by Posin in this age of exaggerated emoting (remember August: Osage County?) and many Hollywood actors insistence on looking radiant and ravishing in every frame.

Bening and Harris' performances make The Face of Love a small wonder and it troubles me that such an understated and unassuming film might be lost in the Divergent and 300: Rise of an Empire current.

The Face of Love has its missteps; I'm not sure how I feel about the ending, which left me feeling a little dissatisfied, but even that doesn't diminish what comes before.