Tuesday, After Christmas

I reluctantly began to watch TUESDAY, AFTER CHRISTMAS on Netflix Instant last night. The quality was very poor, something that's sadly become common for Netflix's Instant watch selections. I almost prefer the DVDs now. But when the film started, in a long, seven-minute take, I became captivated. There on a bed lay two completely naked people, talking for a while, and eventually rising. Directed by Romanian New Wave director Radu Muntean, the film considers the eventual confession that we know Paul (Dragos Bucuri) will have to make to his wife, Adriana (Mirela Oprisor). Married in real life, Paul and Adriana have a marriage that seems pretty normal as they go about mundane activities, but from the first, long take, we immediately learn of Paul's infidelity. Unlike most childish ruminations on adultery, Raluca (Maria Popistasu) and Paul's relationship is not one that is there merely to fulfill Paul's sexual desires. Rather, he's in love, and tries to go about a dignified way in bringing about the inevitable choice between her or his wife. Muntean's film is slow but real, and every actor in it feels like a real human being. The dialogue is not bogged down by pop culture references, which only to serve to prove that this is a creature living in the same time period as us, but stripped down to the basics of shopping for christmas, and talking on the phone about plans of when to pick the kid up. Popistasu especially has the right iterations and drawn out sentences that fit people today, and Paul's slow considerations of what he should do and how he should do it make the film extremely tense. Every time Paul walks into a room with his wife, there's a searing suspense over whether she's figured him out or not. When she finally discovers the truth, the film switches from being a tense, well crafted drama to an utterly compelling, raw shocker. Adriana and her reactions to Paul are perfectly toned, and the end of the film, which might seem abrupt, really just leaves all the questions that should be left open, open. What's also amazing is that Paul's future is so unclear. His future with Raluca could turn out just as badly as his with Adriana, and that's a possibility left very open. TUESDAY, AFTER CHRISTMAS is a real pleasure. It's intense, it's real, and it's left open to question.

★★★★ out of Five