Charlotte Sometimes (2002)

"Charlotte Sometimes" is a surprising and unique romance that is perfectly suited for carrying the flag of independent video features. In 2002 the film was awarded the John Cassavetes Award at the Independent Spirit Awards, which is given to the best film made under $500,000. It's writer and director, Eric Byler, had been developing this story since the middle of the last decade, and his work and vision have resulted in a sparse, muted film that reveals insights into its characters slowly, but very surely.

The film stars Michael Idemoto as Michael, owner of his own garage who lives alone and rents out the house's extension to a beautiful young woman named Lori (Eugenia Yuan). At night, while he's reading or shuffling around, trying to ease his loneliness, he hears Lori and her boyfriend having rigorous sex. Sometimes he escapes to the watering hole nearby, but other times he pauses and listens. In one early scene, he puts his hand up against the wall that separates the two neighbors, and lingers there for a minute. Without saying a word, we see that he is in love with Lori.

"Charlotte Sometimes" is full of these scenes that communicate the characters' emotions without ever having them tell us. Michael is in pain, though he denies it, and it is not eased with the frequent visits from Lori after her boyfriend has gone to sleep. She often spends the night with Michael, watching TV and exhibiting a platonic, yet naively cruel love for her neighbor/landlord.

One day, she visits him at work and offers to set her up with a girl that she knows. He rejects her offer, telling her "I'm not afraid to be alone." Michael is shy and almost too reserved; he hardly speaks in this film, but Idemoto has enough character in his face to reveal his longing without uttering a word. That night, he meets a stranger at the bar. They take a walk, and soon they are back at his house, with sex as a possibility. The woman is named Darcy (Jacqueline Kim), and later we learn that she may be more than simply a stranger. She is mysterious and sexual and bewildering, telling Michael "Men don't want me. They just think they do." What's a guy supposed to do with that?

Byler uses the digital video medium well, giving his a film a "fly-on-the-wall" sense that is perfect for the grainy footage shot from strange angles; it's as if we're peeking from behind corners to watch Michael, Darcy, Lori and her boyfriend Justin (Matt Westmoreland) engage in relationship roulette. As the film nears its end, everyone is forced to confront what plagues them and be as honest as possible. Characters get hurt and do the hurting, and oftentimes the loneliest people are the ones who do most of the talking.

"Charlotte Sometimes" is challenging because it doesn't deliberately try to appeal to us, but instead requires us to see the simple beauty in every day characters. The pacing of the film is slow, but Byler leaves enough of the mundane details of these lives in here that we forgive the slowness in favor of the authenticity.

By the way, all the characters in the film are Asian-American, and though race is largely incidental to the narrative, many of the reviews I've read have lauded the film as in the spirit of Yasujiro Ozu, Ang Lee, and Wong Kar-Wai. When I see such things, I cannot help but feel annoyed; why does a film about Asians have to inevitably be compared to films by other Asians? Byler is a talented artist who echoes the visual skill of another rising filmmaker, David Gordon Green ("George Washington"), and the mysterious explorations of both simple and complicated relationships of Atom Egoyan ("Exotica").