SUNDANCE IS FOR CRYING
This has not been an easy day for me, my first at Sundance this year, and normally I wouldn’t use this forum to tell my sob story. But one epic storm, delayed flight, 15-hour hang in the Phoenix Airport, experience of being menaced by a drunk fellow traveler, lost suitcase, Residence Inn rate dispute, lost blackberry, moment of being screamed at by airport security telling me to stop looking for lost blackberry and get on the plane, found suitcase, shuttle drop at Walmart to purchase new blackberry at Park City Walmart, voicemail upon phone purchase that my accommodations had sort of maybe probably fallen through, only to take my first steps into the snow and be splashed hat to boot with slush from an SUV…. look, I needed to sit in a dark room.
So it is possible that my state of mind influenced the borderline-rapturous, very tearful viewing experience I had watching Ken Wardrop’s His & Hers, but I am certain that it’s a wonderful film. Interviews with 70 women of the Irish midlands are arranged in order of age, each one revealed to us in just one or two shots of their faces, houses, hallways and bedrooms. Each one speaks of the men in their lives — first their fathers, then their boyfriends, husbands, sons, grandchildren, and finally their late husbands and grown children. Each funny, tiny moment and small, humble insight compounds on the voices before, adding up to a truly moving sense that experience is universal, and love is what gets you through it. I should mention that I get very emotional when I get this tired, but I also really hope this film reaches a wide audience.
