Yes (2004/I)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Sally Potter

Writer:

Sally Potter (written by)

Release Date:

5 August 2005 (Turkey)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

In this film, told almost entirely in iambic pentameter, She is a scientist in a loveless marriage to Anthony...

Plot Keywords:

Beach | Scientist | Blues Music | Cook | Swimming Pool

Awards:

2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Shirley Henderson	...	Cleaner
Joan Allen	...	She
Sam Neill	...	Anthony
Simon Abkarian	...	He
Wil Johnson	...	Virgil
Gary Lewis	...	Billy
Raymond Waring	...	Whizzer
Stephanie Leonidas	...	Grace
Barbara Oxley	...	Cleaner in Swimming Pool
Samantha Bond	...	Kate
Kev Orkian	...	Waiter
George Yiasoumi	...	Kitchen Boss
Beryl Scott	...	Cleaner in Laboratory
Sheila Hancock	...	Aunt
Lol Coxhill	...	Father Christmas

MPAA:

Rated R for language and some sexual content.

Runtime:

100 min | Argentina:100 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival)

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Netherlands:12 | Sweden:Btl | Switzerland:14 (canton of Zurich) | Germany:12 | Argentina:13 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Australia:M | Singapore:NC-16 | USA:R | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Cuba

Company:

Adventure Pictures

Trivia:

Director 'Sally Potter' told Joan Allen to think of the dialog, which is in verse, more in the line of Eminem than William Shakespeare. She even took the actress to Def Poetry Jam, a night of spoken word that ran on Broadway courtesy of hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons to experience it.

Goofs:

Continuity: As "He" is chopping celery and talking to his crew, the knife in his hands changes from shot to shot. One shot has pieces of celery stuck to the knife while the other shows a clean blade.

Quotes:

Cleaner: And, in the end, it simply isn't worth / Your while to try and clean your life away. / You can't. For, everything you do or say / Is there, forever. It leaves evidence. / In fact it's really only common sense; / There's no such thing as nothing, not at all. / It may be really very, very small / But it's still there. In fact I think I'd guess / That "no" does not exist. There's only "yes".

Soundtrack:

TEN LONG YEARS

Austin Movie Show review

Not since Shakespeare's day have playwrights written entire screenplays in iambic pentameter, but writer/director Sally Potter might single-handedly start the trend again. However, it took me over a half hour to realize that the whole film was one epic poem – before then all I thought was, "This dialogue is horrible! People don't actually speak like this!" But that's the point. Poetry is not meant to imitate average speech. That's why it's poetry.

Joan Allen plays a lonely wife (whose name is never mentioned) trapped in a loveless marriage who has a fiercely passionate affair with a Muslim man from Lebanon. Because she was born in Northern Ireland (but raised, however, in America), she thinks she understands her lover's pain and suffering as an Arab man living in London. These two lovers fight about race, class, religion, politics, stereotypes, and identity, and with the recent bombings on the London Underground, this film is unsettlingly too relevant. Yes is a superb love poem that speaks volumes about what we, as a society, are afraid to mention in our post-9/11 world. But unfortunately, sitting through this film feels more like homework than pleasure.