Matthew Broderick and Alice Eve team up in "Dirty Weekend," a new film about two co-workers on a business trip who get to know each others secrets when their plane gets delayed in Albuquerque. Time Warner Cable News’ Neil Rosen filed the following review.
Writer, director Neil LaBute's latest film stars Matthew Broderick and Alice Eve. It's called Dirty Weekend.
Broderick and Eve play Les and Natalie, two co-workers, en route to an important business meeting in Dallas. Bad weather conditions ground their flight in Albuquerque where they're both now stuck for a one day layover.
Apparently a lot, as both harbor secrets that, over the course of this long day, they slowly reveal to each other.
It turns out that Les, who's happily married with kids, was in Albuquerque once before. He had a drunken night, doesn't recall much, but does have a vague recollection that he might have had a homosexual experience. Returning to the gay bar in town where he thinks this possibly occurred, he tries to piece together a personal mystery that he hasn't been able to get out of his mind.
Natalie is dealing with some issues of her own, and from this point on, the movie takes some surprising twists and turns, so I won't reveal any more.
As the two main characters begin to reveal personal information about themselves, they forge a close plutonic friendship that never existed before. Together, they help each other come to grips with their lives as they each go on a brief voyage of self discovery.
Compared to his previous work, this is actually a bit mellower material from writer, director LaBute, but only just a bit milder.
The somewhat toned down LaBute offers up a piece that's still filled with engaging dialogue.
Broderick, giving his best performance in years, is perfectly cast as the nebbishy guy trying to come to come to grips with something that might or might not have happened. While Eve is also excellent. She's very at home with LaBute's dialogue having worked with him recently in the excellent film Some Velvet Morning. Together, they have great rapport.
This could have easily worked on a stage, but it's fine as a film. Well done, highly entertaining and funny.
Neil Rosen’s Big Apple Rating:
Three Apples