Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
It's All About Love (2002)
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Vinterberg's follow-up to Festen is a thrillingly dreamy sci-fi allegory set in 2021. John (Phoenix) stops off in New York to see that Elena (Danes) signs her divorce papers. She's distant and strangely agitated, despite (or because of) an entourage of managers, publicists, assistants and bodyguards, all dedicated to the safekeeping of the world's premier ice skater. Persuaded to stay another day, John glimpses his wife's doppelgänger - or thinks he does - then steals away with the real thing (or is she?). The future according to Vinterberg looks suspiciously familiar: big business is taking care of itself, even as the ecology fluctuates between heatwaves and snowstorms; people are dropping dead from heart neglect; and the Ugandans are floating off into the stratosphere. It's a film of mysterious discontinuities, Lynchian in its jet lag disruptions of time and space; a New World Disorder conspiracy thriller reminiscent of Wenders' Until the End of the World in scope and The Manchurian Candidate in its lunatic conviction. It's also, clearly, the work of a film-maker confronting all manner of new horizons. Sean Penn plays Vinterberg, in effect, taking notes from on high as he circumnavigates the globe in a plane that can't land. Superbly photographed, with pitch-perfect supporting performances, it's an all-or-nothing affair. Naive, preposterous, spellbinding and strange, this audacious folly braves ridicule. But if you get it, you might just love it.Author: TCh
Cast & crew
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Producer: Birgitte Hald
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Claire Danes, Douglas Henshall, Alun Armstrong, Margo Martindale, Mark Strong, Geoffrey Hutchings, Sean Penn, Harry Ditson, Thomas Bo Larsen full cast
Genre(s): Science Fiction
Duration: 104 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
To the letter
Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.
Mind over matter
David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.
Fool's gold
Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.
We are the championed
Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."
A history of violence
Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.
True romantic
James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.
Playing in the dark
MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.
Junk bonds
Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.
What do you think?
Post your review now