This was my second Hal Hartley film, and the one that made me go out and rent everything else he's ever made. After FLIRT, this is my favorite (I know, TRUST fans are getting angry at me right now) of Hartley's works. Maybe it's because, like FLIRT, I relate very strongly to these people: their intelligence, their fears, their lifestyles and concerns, their triumphs all seem so real to me, and yet rendered in that unique Hartley style that I've come to love so, and ultimately see as a very romantic vision of the normal world. Karen Sillas gives a performance that's a lesson in subtlety, and Robert Burke is brilliantly passionate and cynical at the same time. Elina Lowhenson, William Mackay and Bill Sage are all great too, and each has one or two splendid moments, but Martin Donnavin (no surprise) and Damien Heath steal the movie. The best part is, however, the end. Like FLIRT, it was so subtle, so smart, and so genuine, that it brought tears to my eyes.
Review of Simple Men
