John and Mary

I just watched John and Mary; it is a very interesting, intelligent, thoughtful movie that in the end, for me, was kind of unsatisfying.

It's about a man and a woman who met in a bar and slept together. It opens with them waking up the morning after, and the whole film follows them spending the day together, awkwardly attempting to get to know each other at the same time that they are dealing with their own relationship issues. In odd and subtle ways they each push the other away at the same time that a yearning for intimacy seems to develop between the two of them. The scenes of their day together are spliced with scenes from their imagination as well as flashbacks to previous relationships.

Dustin Hoffman plays John, and his physical attraction to Mary, played by Mia Farrow, is palpable. Mary, however, seems cold and baiting, and I never felt that she really liked him. Her personality was kind of prickly and enigmatic, and I didn't find her very likable.

In fact, what I thought was good about the movie was the way it was exploring how people *don't* connect. At one point toward the end Dustin Hoffman says that it isn't working, it doesn't seem right; it's got to seem right. And that's when John and Mary clicked the most for me. However, it ends up with him chasing her and them deciding that they are going to be together (it is implied that she will be moving in). I found that forced and I didn't feel happy, as I never felt particularly invested in them getting together. So that was disappointing.

One thing I loved: seeing all the footage of New York from 1969. John's apartment was literally around the corner from where I grew up.