This talky meditation on lost love unfolds in black-and-white as if to defy its protagonists’ youth: Javier and Nora split as teens, but is there still a flame seven years later? Javier is in a new relationship but seems dissatisfied. Nora is guarded and seems to be harboring much more resentment than Javier--which makes sense once we get to the juicy telenovela twist.
Sure-footed in its simple rendering of not-so-simple conversation, this stripped-down Spanish mumblecore plays more like Linklater’s BEFORE SUNSET or the early films of Eric Rohmer.