Customer Reviews

Flirt

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Like many of the best movies, Hal Hartley's films exist in a world that is both recognizably realistic and ever so slightly beyond belief. In contrast to many of his previous works, which tend to be set near Manhattan and/or Long Island, Flirt has a global scope, and it's fascinating to see how Hartley's style meshes with other cultural settings.

Indeed that is a large part of the point of "Flirt," which is trio of shorter pieces (taking place in New York, Germany and Japan respectively) which all tell essentially the same story of someone who flirts with everyone and everything, including committment. Although it is not a substitue fo rthe film itself, the screenplay allows one to take a step back and appreciate the subtleties of Hartley's approaches to each rendition. Though character genders and relationships may shift from location to location, what "Flirt" does with these compelling variations on a common theme is nothing less than find a way to reveal our common humanity across the world.

Obviously it's debatable if that's exactly what Hal Hartley intended when he wrote these words, but that serves to make the achievement more rather than less magnificent. At a time when most movies seem to be about less and less, Hartley is willing to make films about more and more. He is willing to stumble a bit (as in the third part of this trio), but at the end of the day, he remains a powerful voice for people who do not exist in black and white but rather in beautiful shades of gray.