I began watching this movie with a set of expectation having read several reviews. That said, the movie was not what I expected but it is a very good film, a powerful film but don't expect a happy ending. For me the most difficult scene in the film was euthanizing of a pet (but not the cause of the sad ending!). I'll never understand why directors feel the need to show the details of this process. Although the ending was sad, getting to it was extremely engrossing, with a love scene between Lena Olin and Juliette Binoche one of the most erotic I have ever seen in any film. In fact, the scene left my mouth agape as it was so explicitly sexual but without being overly graphic. I have not read the book and I am sure it would provide far greater detail of life behind the Iron Curtain but for those not interested in weighty novels, and having spent some time in eastern Europe, I can testify that this film gives the viewer some notion of what life must have been like, including the crushing of the Prague Spring of 1968. I found the inability of two obviously capable people, Day-Lewis and Binoche, to survive in the West profoundly sad, and, that they would give up personal freedom for a life where many decisions about life were made by the state hard to fathom. Yet in the end, the two came to experience a simple happiness. The three stars worked well together and there was definite chemistry between Day- Lewis and Binoche. Well worth a look for people who like to think about what they watch.
Review of The Unbearable Lightness of Being
