Now
let's go to Belgium for 2008's MOSCOW, BELGIUM starring Barbara Sarafian as a
middle aged single mother of three whose husband (Johan Helengbergh) has left
her for a younger woman. Harried, overworked, stressed and in a hurry, she
backs into a truck and meets the driver, a man in his 20s (Jurgen Delnaet) who
has recently experienced a break up.
They
meet fighting, but the trucker has a change of heart and shows up to help fix
the single mom's car. She's reluctant at first but eventually agrees to go on a
date with him. She tells it like it is, and he likes that. She thinks he's too
young, but he's intrigued. She has him over for dinner.
Not
much happens in this little domestic romance, though there is plenty of drama
in the form of the trucker's unfolding past and the single mother's continued
relationship with her husband. It's mostly about big personalities butting up
against each other, and how that can be both infuriating and invigorating.
It's
refreshing to see a performance and character like the single mother played by
Sarafian, and it's too bad we don't get more of these characters and
performances. She's pretty, but definitely looks her age – her unique, lived in
face is part of the charm. She looks like she really could have raised three
kids and like her life really has been a series of annoyances and stressors.
That all works to the movie's advantage – you feel like you're seeing a real,
specific person and not just a stand-in. That's worth more emotion than a series
of big, sweeping, epic events.
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