IMAGINE ME AND YOU
UK, 2006, 94 minutes, Colour.
Piper Perabo, Lena Headey, Matthew Goode, Darren Boyd, Anthony Head, Celia Imrie.
Directed by Ol Parker.
Another wander around the Notting Hill, Love, Actually neighbourhoods of London. There are amiable characters, oddball characters, downright eccentrics, characters unwillingly caught in the rat race and characters who have sexual problems (actually, that is most of them except for a sensible, maybe over-precocious young girl). Some of them have sexual identity problems, one in particular. This is Rachel who glances at the woman who has prepared the flowers for her wedding and is, although at first she does not realise it, smitten. What happens?
Should it all be live and let live? Should it be follow your heart? But what about the abandoned partner or spouse? Does the older generation offer example and security? Are there any moral issues.
Piper Perabo is the bewildered bride (coming at this issue rather late in life one might have thought). Lena Headey is the charming florist. Matthew Goode is the (too?) kindly husband. The option is follow your heart, but this is all set in a kind of fairytale world where a Graduate-like ending, with each woman standing on top of a taxi in a traffic jam in the City of London, does not fully answer the questions which need to be asked.
1. A romantic comedy – with quite a difference?
2. The British tone of the film, the London locations, familiar with Notting Hill from previous films? The touch of the upper-class, the wealthy, the characters from this kind of film rather than gritty realism? The musical score? Songs?
3. The title, its tone, as applied to Rachel, to Luce, and inviting the audience to empathise with these characters?
4. The wedding, Rachel and her happiness, Heck and his charm? Rachel seeing Luce, the flower arrangement, the interest and attraction? The ceremony, the celebration?
5. Rachel and Heck, the background of their families, joining in the celebrations, the “Hugh Grant” type? The strong-minded mother and her remarks?
6. Rachel’s story: background, love for Heck, the family, the engagement, the wedding, a love for her husband, life after the wedding, the invitation to Luce to come, a realisation that something was different, the nature of woman-to-woman love, Luce and her response? Heck and his response?
7. Luce, her personality, her work with the flowers, at the wedding, the attraction to Rachel? The visit to the meal, discussions with Rachel and Heck?
8. Heck and his questions, her explanation of her emotions, her orientation? Trying to understand, accept?
9. The contrast with the realistic presentation of the emotional issues, sexual behaviour, sexual orientation and the touches of fantasy, especially the end, the characters in the taxis, the song?
10. The audience being invited to identify with all the characters, their experiences, seriously, with the light touch? And a challenge to the audience’s perceptions of same-sex orientations, love and behaviour?
