the unbearable lightness of being review

Love makes him look like a condemned man, and he feels guilty about sleeping with his son's fiancee, but he must, he cannot help himself, and so he does.

Jeremy Irons, gaunt and aesthetic, brings no fleshy pleasure to the role. Stephen could easily come to seem like a fool, and some actors could have played him no other way. This is a movie about sight from the first moment the two meet, it is filled with what is seen and what is not seen, as Stephen suffers though a dinner party with his wife, his son, Anna and her mother - and some observe, and some do not, what has happened.Ĭasting is everything here.

The film is based on the best seller by Josephine Hart, which had a certain undeniable power, but the right place for this material is the screen, I think, because it can show exactly how the two look at one another. Watching this movie is like watching an emotional traffic accident as it unfolds. When she was young she suffered a traumatic loss, and she describes herself as 'damaged' She would not hurt him, not by an overt act, but her presence will eventually lead to harm. She is attracted to Stephen, yes, but there is more than that. 'Damage' is not about romance but about obsession, about erotomania on the part of the older man, and about complex and hidden feelings on the part of the young woman. Indeed, they both love Martyn ( Rupert Graves), Stephen's son, and plans for the marriage of Martyn and Anna continue uninterrupted. It is not that they want to hurt anyone, and it is not even that they want a sexual dalliance. A voice: 'It's Anna.' He replies: 'Tell me where you are and I'll be there within an hour.' And so begins their love affair, passionate and obsessive, reckless and heedless of harm to others.

This moment is followed by another that is remarkable for being so abrupt. There might have been a moment when they could have broken the spell, but both chose not to, continuing the moment far beyond the bounds of propriety or reason - particularly since Anna ( Juliette Binoche) has just told Stephen ( Jeremy Irons) that she is his son's fiancee.

The unbearable lightness of being review