Intimate Strangers is one of the most unique love stories that I have viewed in my life. It features two lonely individuals--one who has no one to talk and another who is an accomplished listener who will not say and cannot say what is on his mind.
Mr. Faber, the tax attorney pressed into service as a therapist due to a case of mistaken identity ,reveals himself as being terribly repressed. He is a good man. He is honest, honorable, well-ordered and caring. He is also utterly incapable of either making the first move or of forcing a choice, as his off-and-on girlfriend Jeanne reminds him. This appears to be the reason that the two of them cannot make their romance a permanent one. She is aware of his attributes but cannot forgive his flaws. Indeed, some her actions with her new boyfriend and Mr. Faber seem calculated to force a response. She would prefer William Faber, but wishes him to claim her. He cannot.
Throughout the film, William Faber makes an inviting target. He is a closed individual, but only marginally more so than the other characters in the film. The other characters just hide it better. They are just as lonely and just as stuck as Faber. At one point he reminds Jeanne that when he first met her she was going to be a novelist, instead she contented herself with filing and stacking books away at a library. Jeanne appears thunderstruck when he slaps her across the face with that intimate secret. Nonetheless, you do find yourself wondering how Faber got to be Faber. The fact that one of the main characters remains shrouded in mystery is the one weakness of this otherwise excellent film.
Anna, Faber's patient/doctor is the focus of the film and she gives an excellent performance. I call her patient/doctor because her relationship with Faber is symbiotic. During the course of the film the two of them heal one another. Unlike Faber, Anna is aware of the dynamics between them and its nature. At one point a patient of Dr. Monnier asks Anna about her therapist. "I'm his only patient. He needs me," Anna responds. In fact, for much of the film, the true question is just how aware if Anna? A missing memento and a going away gift to Mr. Faber call into question whether Anna has launched him upon a quest, one where he can ultimately prove that there was something more to their meetings than two lonely people talking. Or is it just happenstance?
Reading some of the comments of other viewers of this film I find that many are disappointed that Mr. Faber did not have more of an arc to his character. I would submit that it seems so small because he had so very far to go. The changes evidenced at the end of the film, while modest, were monumental for him. Like others, I was disappointed when given a chance to explain why he had sought her out he fudged the answer. However, as the credits rolled I watched him traverse the greatest distance in his life. He moved from his chair, to a table to pick up an ashtray, to sit on the couch beside Anna and share a cigarette together. A first move. Surely Anna will know what to do with that!
See me...Feel me...Touch me...Heal me...
All in all this is a great film.
Mr. Faber, the tax attorney pressed into service as a therapist due to a case of mistaken identity ,reveals himself as being terribly repressed. He is a good man. He is honest, honorable, well-ordered and caring. He is also utterly incapable of either making the first move or of forcing a choice, as his off-and-on girlfriend Jeanne reminds him. This appears to be the reason that the two of them cannot make their romance a permanent one. She is aware of his attributes but cannot forgive his flaws. Indeed, some her actions with her new boyfriend and Mr. Faber seem calculated to force a response. She would prefer William Faber, but wishes him to claim her. He cannot.
Throughout the film, William Faber makes an inviting target. He is a closed individual, but only marginally more so than the other characters in the film. The other characters just hide it better. They are just as lonely and just as stuck as Faber. At one point he reminds Jeanne that when he first met her she was going to be a novelist, instead she contented herself with filing and stacking books away at a library. Jeanne appears thunderstruck when he slaps her across the face with that intimate secret. Nonetheless, you do find yourself wondering how Faber got to be Faber. The fact that one of the main characters remains shrouded in mystery is the one weakness of this otherwise excellent film.
Anna, Faber's patient/doctor is the focus of the film and she gives an excellent performance. I call her patient/doctor because her relationship with Faber is symbiotic. During the course of the film the two of them heal one another. Unlike Faber, Anna is aware of the dynamics between them and its nature. At one point a patient of Dr. Monnier asks Anna about her therapist. "I'm his only patient. He needs me," Anna responds. In fact, for much of the film, the true question is just how aware if Anna? A missing memento and a going away gift to Mr. Faber call into question whether Anna has launched him upon a quest, one where he can ultimately prove that there was something more to their meetings than two lonely people talking. Or is it just happenstance?
Reading some of the comments of other viewers of this film I find that many are disappointed that Mr. Faber did not have more of an arc to his character. I would submit that it seems so small because he had so very far to go. The changes evidenced at the end of the film, while modest, were monumental for him. Like others, I was disappointed when given a chance to explain why he had sought her out he fudged the answer. However, as the credits rolled I watched him traverse the greatest distance in his life. He moved from his chair, to a table to pick up an ashtray, to sit on the couch beside Anna and share a cigarette together. A first move. Surely Anna will know what to do with that!
See me...Feel me...Touch me...Heal me...
All in all this is a great film.