by Eleanor Mannikka
synopsis
Director and writer (James Benning) has put a couple from the Midwestern U.S. into New York City, and then used the cityscapes to stand in for any time or place that is relevant to the moment, as the couple reminisce about their past. Still shots, several enigmatic, are interspersed with repeated compositions, or a camera panning across a scene, to subvert the notion of action as a basis for story-telling. Instead, the story -- as such -- is related through voiceovers and telephone conversations worked into a scene. As visual details, narration, and a final phone conversation come to an end, the viewers may at last understand what all those still shots and panning meant.
