Film let down by a lack of complexity, writes Mark Orton.
Director: Arie Posin
Cast: Annette Benning, Ed Harris, Robin Williams, Amy Brenneman, Jess Weixler, Linda Park
Rating: (M)
2 stars out of 5
The Face of Love goes something like this: Nikki (Annette Benning) and her husband Garrett (Ed Harris) are still very much in love well into their 50s. On a trip to Mexico from their stylish home in Los Angeles, where Garret works as an architect and Nikki as a ''house stager'', Garret enters the surf and drowns.
Fast-forward five years, and Nikki now alone and obviously still grieving for Garret, skulks about in her comfortable abode, occasionally hosting neighbouring widower Roger, played by an ever-so-slightly creepy Robin Williams.
For the most part, The Face of Love moves at a glacial pace as the intent is to seed backstory, possibly because the main twist in the narrative is not developed enough to carry everything. After a chance visit to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art at the suggestion of her daughter Summer (Jess Weixler), Nikki notices a man who is the spitting image of Garrett, and sets about stalking him.
Tom (also played by Ed Harris) teaches art and is single: perfect. Well, for Nikki it almost is as she sets about incorporating Tom into her life as if nothing happened. Benning and Harris are very good, Benning in particular lays on just enough disturbed behaviour to make you cringe, as Tom somehow manages to duck under all her accidental references to Garrett.
Ed Harris plays two characters with a great touch.
It's not as complicated as it might sound, and that is where The Face of Love falls down; there just isn't enough complexity, even with its sly nod to Hitchcock's Vertigo.
Best thing: The funky Los Angeles architecture.
Worst thing: The predictable story beats.
See it with: Any fans of Ed Harris or Annette Benning.
