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Let’s not hide the fact that the film is written in iambic pentameter — the verse of Shakespeare. This detail seems to be the central problem for some of the film’s critics and I can completely understand why. It’s off-putting at first, but grows on you if you allow it to.

Joan Allen (THE CONTENDER) plays the lead named simply She. She discovers that her husband Anthony (Sam Neill, DEAD CALM) is cheating on her. At a dinner party, She meets a Lebanese chef named simply He (Simon Abkarian, ARARAT). She and He strike up a passionate affair, but soon their differences begin to pull them apart.

She is a rich Irish-American agnostic, who does research on stem cells. He is a poor chef, who was a surgeon in Beirut before he was virtually forced to move to London. He is religious and proud. But She is proud too and in that similarity they clash. Narrating the story is She’s maid known as Cleaner (Shirley Henderson, INTERMISSION), who tells us that dirt can never really be gotten rid of because we humans are always producing more of it. W

here the poetry really works is in the more heated and passionate portions of the story. Where it doesn’t work is in the more casual moments. It also keeps the audience at a distance at times because the setting is modern and the dialogue is so artificial.

Director/writer Sally Potter (ORLANDO) presents the film with an elegant style, which only missteps in a few areas when she uses an unneeded strobe effect. However, the passionate performances of Allen and Abkarian are what really drive the film. Their struggle is Shakespearian on an emotional level, which makes the dialogue create a sort of magical quality, especially in two scenes one in a café and the other in a parking deck. The poetry even takes on a quirky kind of humor in other scenes, especially the ones in the kitchen of the restaurant where He works.

I was also impressed with how the film weaved together so many pressing contemporary issues regarding race and religion into such an intimate film. For some, the film might come off pretentious, but for others who just allow themselves to listen to what the characters are saying and how they act will find great depth in the film that dares to be different and grand.