Willa and Bill meet by chance at an airport in the Midwest of the United States. They haven’t seen each other for 25 years, that is, since their love story came to an end. Thanks to a snowstorm that grounded all flights, the two spend several hours retracing their shared past and telling each other about their present lives.
Meg Ryan, in her second directorial effort, fails to shine like she did when she was the queen of romantic comedies.
We all remember her in delightful and funny comedies such as When When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle or There’s Post@ for You. With this film, her second directorial, she would like to revive those glories but the mechanism doesn’t work. She relies on a theatrical text by Steven Dietz and this weighs on the entire system. Not because we move from the theater to the cinema screen obviously. We have many examples in the history of cinema of transfers with a more than positive outcome. Not even because the two protagonists don’t know how to support each other’s roles.
She is credible as a middle-aged woman still somewhat tied to new age practices or purification ceremonies to be carried out with a long hollow cylinder that reproduces the roar of water. If we add a little clumsiness due to a hip problem, that’s it. Duchovny is also at ease in the role of the manager who feels he is on the verge of being put aside, closed in character but also, with that slightly wrinkled face, capable of attracting sympathy.
What doesn’t work is the mixing of genres combined with the lack of choice between realism (albeit a little magical) and pure fantasy. In this airport where the other passengers appear or disappear on command, where a silver heart dominates in one scene, where one is reminded a little of significant suffering but then one dances like in a musical, directorial confusion reigns supreme . At times it seems like we’re watching a film to be aired at Christmas (even though it’s February 29th) while then the themes become more serious.