[The following review contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!]
Near the conclusion of Isabel Sandoval’s quietly beautiful Lingua Franca, there is an utterly gut-wrenching scene in which the two protagonists essentially inhabit completely separate movies. As they slow dance in a dive bar—bathed, of course, in moody red light—recovering alcoholic Alex (Eamon Farren, personifying bruised masculinity) offers to marry Olivia, his grandmother’s live-in caretaker (portrayed by Sandoval herself). Although the proposal is primarily pragmatic—Olivia is an illegal immigrant, and desperately needs a green card to avoid deportation—it is also motivated by genuine love and affection. Overwhelmed by this seemingly selfless gesture, Olivia attempts to come clean about a secret that she has been keeping—one that she fears will irrevocably alter how Alex perceives her. In an effort to assuage her misplaced guilt, Alex insists that he'll stand by her no matter what; in the process of expressing this superficially noble sentiment, however, he inadvertently exposes his own deception—a far more terrible act of manipulation and exploitation that recontextualizes the couple's entire relationship. As he continues to sway to the music—totally oblivious to his verbal mishap—his eyes remain closed, basking in the ignorant bliss of romance; hers, on the other hand, are wide with horror—clearly conveying the feelings of anguish, betrayal, and violation that she is experiencing.
As far as climaxes go, it’s subtle—but that restraint hardly diminishes the moment's emotional impact. Lingua Franca is the perfect example of substance as style. Like the exquisite works of Chantal Akerman, the film is epic and intimate in equal measure: its visuals are spectacularly spare, its performances seductively naturalistic, its conflicts and characters captivatingly mundane. It is, in short, absolutely sublime—a patient, understated masterpiece that is thematically rich beyond compare, insightfully deconstructing the human condition, the gender binary, and the ever-elusive American Dream.
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