>>REVIEW
THE GIRL IN THE CAFÉ
Directed by David Yates
HBO Home Video, 2005
One of the great debates in the study of popular culture is whether or not a movie or song is successful because it is an accurate snapshot of society at a given moment, or because it manages to anticipate the direction people in that society want to move. Future debates will feature Brokeback Mountain, Crash and Syriana, regardless of which film ultimately wins more trophies.
If a film can tap into public sentiment in an attempt to direct society, it is called "activist cinema" and delicately balances its artistic responsibilities.
If it fails to walk this line, it is simple propaganda.
One of the year’s best examples of the activist cinema genre, The Girl in the Café, will go largely unnoticed at the box office because it took its activist stance seriously and chose not to open in theatres.
On one level, The Girl in the Café is a standard British romance movie, featuring an unlikely duo played by Bill Nighy and Kelly MacDonald. Lawrence (Nighy), is a shy, stuttering actuarial accountant attached to the British Treasury Department, while Gina (MacDonald), a young woman, is aloof from the world, seemingly without a past. The two strike up an unlikely friendship over a cup of tea. When Lawrence discovers that his governmental co-workers are all taking their spouses to a conference in Reykjavik, he spontaneously invites the unattached Gina to accompany him. Once in Iceland, questions about Gina’s past and motivations start to surface, threatening Lawrence’s career and, indeed, the entire British position at what is revealed to be a G8 meeting.
This is where the movie shifts gears and Gina’s passion for setting the elimination of child poverty as an agenda item marks the film’s activist position. The dialogue between the various characters firmly outlines the issues and positions involved, borrowing heavily from the Make Poverty History campaign. However, the film is very clear that the decision to end child poverty rests in the hands of the eight leaders of the G8 countries. The key stumbling blocks, however, centre on issues like trade subsidies, where each country is afraid to make a move lest another take advantage of its market position.
Timing the release of The Girl in the Café to coincide with the impending G8 summit in Scotland was a crucial decision for writer-producer Richard Curtis. Better known for his romantic comedy films like Love, Actually, The Girl in the Café was originally intended for theatres, but Curtis opted to shoot his project for HBO, saying, "the way to get to lots of people quickly and inject something into the bloodstream is to do it on the television."
Nominated for a Golden Globe, The Girl in the Café was released just prior to Bob Geldof’s Live8 concerts and helped to set the tone in Britain for the wave of public concern that followed the G8 summits. While it is too soon to tell what impact the movie had on popular opinion, its warm portraits of two individuals drawn together in the face of monolithic opposition and bureaucratic inertia make it a stunning example of what activist filmmaking can achieve. |
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