conversations with other women

This is the cover for the Japanese novelization of the movie. I had nothing to do with the writing of the novelization. Some of my dialogue from the film is excerpted on the cover though.

Synopsis

A wedding reception in a New York hotel -- a Man and a Woman begin a flirtation. The Woman, a bridesmaid, tries to dissuade him. The Man, a groomsman, never doubts that they will end up in bed. And they do. But their evening together does not end there -- sex is only the beginning of the story. The Man and the Woman live an entire relationship in one night. By the end of the evening, what began as a tryst between a Man and Woman turns into something more -- a window on their shared history, a mirror revealing their present selves and a glimpse of their uncertain future.

My take

Conversations with Other Women is a screenplay I wrote that was turned into a feature film starring Helena Bonham Carter (Fight Club, Big Fish) and Aaron Eckhart (Thank You for Smoking). The movie was directed by my partner, Hans Canosa. (He is the HCC to whom Elsewhere is dedicated.) In 2006, it was released theatrically in the US, France, Israel, and Canada and in 2007, it will be released in the UK, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Mexico, Italy, and a bunch of other places. (For a look at all the posters, just scroll down the right side.) I was nominated for a 2007 Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay. I lost to Michael Arndt who wrote Little Miss Sunshine but, at the very least, my name was pronounced correctly at the ceremony. Lucy Liu of Charlie's Angels fame was the very capable reader.

The movie also features the amazing Olivia Wilde, who you might recognize as Marissa's lesbian girlfriend, Alex, from The O.C., Nora Zehetner (Heroes), and Tom Lennon. I was incredibly psyched that Tom was in the movie because when I was in high school one of my favorite TV shows was a sketch variety program called The State. Conversations also has a terrific soundtrack, featuring songs by Rilo Kiley and Carla Bruni.

If you live in the US, you can rent the film from Netflix or Blockbuster (Or better yet, buy it from Barnes & Noble or Amazon.) However, if you're one of my younger readers, I must caution you that the movie is rated R and you should get your guardian's permission first. It has swearing, sex, cigarette smoking, and all manner of other vices.

"An intimate movie in every sense... it's sad and funny, satisfying and frustrating, totally familiar." LA Times

"...sex, ordinarily the climax of such a setup, comes fairly early on, and plays second fiddle to endless gabbing... This would get old really fast, were it not for Gabrielle Zevin's funny, fluid screenplay and Canosa's deft use of split-screen..." Village Voice

"The script by Gabrielle Zevin is clever too, and in all the ways that word "clever" implies: skillful, shrewd, intelligent and just a trifle icy. Icy or not, to think back on "Conversations With Other Women" having seen it is to be impressed by the control that the screenwriter has over the material, how dialogue that's seemingly free-flowing is carefully calibrated to introduce a series of revelations that keeps viewers on their toes. This is entertainment by and for adults."
San Francisco Chronicle

"The observations about love and sex and time and memory are uncommonly sharp and true -- so much so that you may feel at times that Dick Cheney has bugged your intimate conversations and provided them to Zevin for her screenplay."
Chicago Sun-Times

British Theatrical Poster