Romantic comedies geared towards general audiences can often be clean-cut, full of predictable plots, romantic and escapist.
The Lovers, which opens today, is a different, more realistic spin on the changing dynamics of marriage, love, and affairs, says our film contributor. Debra Winger stars in her first leading role in more than two decades alongside Tracy Letts as a married and disconnected couple. Both are engaged in serious affairs (their respective partners played by Aidan Gillen and Melora Walters), but on the brink of ending their marriage, a spark re-ignites between them.
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Film contributor Dave Luhrssen says that The Lovers is a true testament to what indie films can accomplish. He notes that the fully developed characters are central to the film's success and charm, but the women in particular carry the torch.
"The two women in this film are more interesting than the two men when it comes right down to it," Luhrssen says. "There's a great depth there, a range of possible and conflicting emotional responses to the complicated kinds of situations that most of us find ourselves in at some point in life."
Although this film may not reach blockbuster status, compared to traditional Hollywood romantic comedies, Luhrssen says older actors and their audiences deserve more quality movies like this.
"Older people have not necessarily been well served (in Hollywood)," notes Luhrssen. "This is one of the benefits of the indie film movement...the best of them, and even some of the B-minus type of movies, do achieve something. They tell stories about people or groups of people who are otherwise ignored by the entertainment industry."
