FORTY SHADES OF BLUE, Ira Sachs, 2005. Cert 15

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Dina Korzun holds the attention in this moody piece from Ira Sachs. She has very little dialogue, and there is not much spoken in the film. All the intent and meaning come from the atmosphere and facial expressions. It takes some time to get going, or the audience gets used to the slow pace. Korzun plays Laura, the much younger Russian girlfriend of an aged Rip Torn playing Alan, a Memphis music producer with a foul temper. Laura seems so passive through most of the story that she could be anaesthetized but, when she falls for her partner's son, Michael (played by Darren Burrows) she betrays a depth of emotion that has not been accessed in her relationship with his father. In this she has been playing a role for survival; an escape from a worse life in Russia. Korzun plays the role with magnificent and delicate sensitivity which is at times breathtaking. The story itself is an odd one. The audience is presented with the scenario of an escapee Russian living with a successful American which is a set up for emotional starvation, and elicits sympathy. Her loneliness and social isolation is understandable but it is hard to sympathize with Laura when she gets repeatedly drunk to near-oblivion and has sordid sexual encounters with deadbeats.

The most moving scene is towards the end. Michael has left, having said that their affair cannot continue, and Laura and Alan are driving to yet another music function. She is trying to bear the pain of thwarted love; her face is a mask, she is like a dead person, while we watch the two in the dark car moving through the night. The camera remains on her face; she is soundless, and almost motionless, the flickers of her face become an insupportable agony to watch. It was worth waiting throughout the slowness of the film to see such superb acting. Instead of leaving it there, however, with her triumph of sensitive performance, the Director has her get out of the car and stride along the sidewalk, still holding the audience in thrall, until, inexplicably, she breaks into a huge smile. Whatever can it mean?

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