Broken English

My friend Emily recommended the film Broken English to me. And I am so glad that she did. Parker Posey leads a quirky ensemble cast as she portrays Nora Wilder, a 30-something woman living in New York City with a liberal arts degree and a job at hotel that she hates. She feels unlucky in love until she has a random meeting with Julian, a Frenchman who traveled to the US for love and then lost. The center of the film is about their growing connection and navigation of each other's understanding about dating and being in relationship. He wants to live in the moment and just have fun. She wants to label it, lock it down, determine if this is for keeps or something to throw away. However, through their time together, Nora unwinds and becomes a calmer, freer version of herself. It is my guess that this is the person she always wanted to be and never had the right ingredients of people, place, and circumstances.

I resonated greatly with her as I watched the film. Both of us going through transitional periods, struggling with "what we want to be when we grow up," and then the inevitable quandary of a single woman in her twenties and thirties: will I ever get married?

But what I enjoyed most about this film is that, in the end, it became less about the man and more about the woman and her making peace with herself. Find the peace, and the rest will come.



Image: The New York Times