Review of Romance & Cigarettes (2005) by Edith N — 19 May 2010

Drowning in Beauty and Pain.

Somehow, in my head, this was a Coen brothers film. I don't know why; reading the credits tells me that they were executive producers, which I guess got entangled in my head. They've worked with actual writer/director of this film, John Turturro, several times. Since the Coens are filmmakers with a "stable," I assume this means they get along and respect one another's work. (Not everyone is Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski.) In fact, that leads me to believe that they signed on as executive producers in no small part because of their place in the industry. The Coens are what is generally referred to as "Hollywood outsiders," I think, but they've also made some of the most respected films of the last, say, twenty years. (Feel old yet? Good!) The names of Joel and Ethan Coen hold some weight, even if, as I suspect, I'm far from the only person who's never sure which is which.

Nick Murder (James Gandolfini) and Kitty Kane (Susan Sarandon) are a married couple with three daughters who live in Queens. They have one of those marriages that people use in jokes about marriage. The fun thing is that this is doubtless why one of their daughters, Baby (Mandy Moore), seems so determined to marry a boy from down the street, Fryburg (Bobby Cannavale). Yes, she's seen the disaster that is her parents' marriage, but getting married would get her out of the house. Her father, meanwhile, has turned to redheaded underwear salesgirl Tula (Kate Winslet), with whom he is having an affair. Kitty seeks solace in her local church with choir director Gene Vincent (Eddie Izzard). She is also being helped in the search for Tula by her deeply crazy Cousin Bo (Christopher Walken, naturally). Nick has as his confidant Angelo (Steve Buscemi, another Coen favourite). Essentially everyone in the film gives the impression of wanting to be somewhere other than they are--possibly excepting Bo, who's having a blast.

Oh, and did I mention the musical numbers? Yeah. Of course, we've seen Susan Sarandon sing before, but this is somewhat different. Before, she was belting things out in her underwear, rather famously--but she was singing with only the music and her costars in the background. Here, the musical numbers are pretty much just singing along to the soundtrack inside everyone's head. Her performance of "Piece of My Heart," backed by Izzard and the choir, is, or starts as, over a recording of the song as sung by someone else. In fact, it quickly slips your mind as to whether the recording continues through the whole song or not. In fact, one of the two most stunning moments of the entire film--the other is the last scene--is Kate Winslet underwater singing along to Nick Cave and "Little Water Song." This isn't talking about emotional content, which we'll get to in a minute. It is just genuinely beautiful. The choreography in the first one, Gandolfini and the guys in the neighbourhood, is fun. This is something else.

And in part it is the emotion of the moment. There is a grasp on how all this feels to all these people which I think a lot of people either missed or don't like. Tula comes across as strong and self-assured, but she tells Kitty that she always breaks up with men when they become attached to her, and that's not a sign of a healthy woman. In that moment under the water, I think she realizes it, possibly for the first time. Bo is delightfully crazy, but even he's been hurt. Something went wrong between Nick and Kitty a long time ago, too. We don't necessarily know what or when or why; in fact, it may have just been a series of little things. All we know is that, now, they can't even talk to each other. This is not funny marital strain. This isn't the cute kind that stand-up comics have been pulling material from for way too long. This is two adults who have been hurting each other a long time, because by now, it's the only way they know how to behave.

Despite the title, there is really very little romance here. There is a lot of sex--Tula, for example, is cheerfully vulgar about Nick and what she wants them to do together. In fact, they're all pretty vulgar. None of the characters think they should have to give an inch or change who they are, really, though arguably Nick makes a major change for Tula! However, Nick's change is physical. None of them seem familiar with the concept of compromise; it's all or nothing with these people. Indeed, Fryburg flat out tells Baby that she must take him exactly as he is. The change Nick makes is not one he wants to; it's one Tula tells him to. I think they may all be so deep in their own brains that they can't get out to reach other people or find their own feelings. Deep down, they're good people. They just can't find that part of themselves anymore. It's a hard thing to realize, and it's an even harder thing to do anything about.