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Movie Review | 'Broken English'

Climbing Out on a Limb and Then Crawling Back

By Matt Zoller Seitz

• June 22, 2007

The low-key comedy “Broken English,” about a romance-scarred professional woman named Nora Wilder (Parker Posey) who invigorates her life with help from a handsome, sensitive, fedora-clad Frenchman (Melvil Poupaud), is a textbook example of an Indiewood film: a Hollywood fantasy wrapped in plain brown paper.

Its contradictory message is something like: “Listen up, 30-something single women; there is no Prince Charming. Oh, wait a minute ... Yes, there is!”

Written and directed by the first-time feature filmmaker Zoe Cassavetes, daughter of the pioneering independent director John Cassavetes, “Broken English” seems blithely unaware of the bait-and-switch that it will ultimately pull. In its first half-hour, while it charts Nora’s repetitious life as a hip hotel’s guest relations manager and establishes her serial disappointment in love, it promises a bracing response to Hollywood falseness: a comedy about a woman who realizes that she’s unhappy because what she thought were high standards were actually items on a romantic and sexual shopping list absorbed from a bankrupt popular culture.

The right age? Check. Interesting job? Check. Looks like a catalog model? Check. What are you doing Friday?

As played by Ms. Posey, who tamps down the vivacious kookiness that has made her an independent-film darling, Nora is the sort of cute mope that might appear in a screenplay emblazoned with Kate Winslet’s coffee stains.

Her online search for a single man in her age bracket yields no results. She agrees to go on a date set up by her grandchild-obsessed mother (played by Gena Rowlands, John Cassavetes’s widow and frequent leading lady and Ms. Cassavetes’s mom), but finds that her prospective suitor (Josh Hamilton, in a note-perfect cameo) is still smitten with his ex-girlfriend.

And a marriage that she has always viewed as ideal — between her best friend, Audrey (Drea de Matteo), and Audrey’s director husband, Mark (Tim Guinee) — is collapsing, thanks to Mark’s fixation on a prospective leading lady who embodies his own romantic fantasies.

The film’s smartest sequence finds Nora flouting her hotel’s no-fraternization policy to go out with a V.I.P. guest, a rising movie star named Nick Gable (Justin Theroux, in the movie’s most complex and surprising performance).

Nick, a man-child with a mohawk that appears to be woven from Sasquatch fur, presents himself as a truth-seeking artist who craves a simple life with a woman who’s not in show business. We quickly deduce a truth that Nora wills herself not to see: Nick is a pure narcissist who sees his date with Nora as an acting challenge — an audition for a one-night stand.

These early, squirm-inducing scenes portend a film that will refute Hollywood romantic comedy’s wish-fulfillment tendencies with a rude dose of reality. Then the hunky, puppy dog Frenchman shows up, and the film’s daring impulses exit stage left.

Mr. Poupaud’s Julien is like a dreamboat from HBO’s “Sex and the City” without the inevitable neurotic downsides. Aside from a brief, awkward conversation in which Julien declares skepticism about monogamy and then reverses himself, his only apparent flaw is that he’s going back to Paris soon — which means, of course, that Nora will have to quit her job and go to Paris to find Julien, and herself.

This is a studio executive’s idea of risk taking, in the same questionable spirit as the 1987 hit “Baby Boom,” in which Diane Keaton played a career woman who inherited an infant and gave up her corporate job in exchange for a thriving small business, a gigantic country house and the love of Sam Shepard.

“Broken English” is a well-acted, smartly directed film that’s depressing because it could have amounted to so much more. It departs from the studio-financed romantic-comedy template in just one, unfortunately fatal respect: it makes a point of pride out of rejecting cliché, then swoons into its embrace.

“Broken English” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned) for some sexual content, brief drug use and language.

BROKEN ENGLISH

Opens today nationwide.

Written and directed by Zoe Cassavetes; director of photography, John Pirozzi; edited by Andrew Weisblum; music by Scratch Massive; production designer, Happy Massee; produced by Jason Kliot, Joana Vicente and Andrew Fierberg; released by Magnolia Pictures and HDNet Films. Running time: 90 minutes.

WITH: Parker Posey (Nora Wilder), Melvil Poupaud (Julien), Drea de Matteo (Audrey Andrews), Justin Theroux (Nick Gable), Peter Bogdanovich (Irving Mann), Tim Guinee (Mark Andrews), James McCaffrey (Perry), Gena Rowlands (Vivien Wilder-Mann) and Josh Hamilton (Charlie).

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Broken english, common sense media reviewers.

Edgy girl-meets-boy indie for older teens and up.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Nora's a mess -- she pops prescription pills w

Just Nora mentally beating up on herself.

Nora and her dates sleep together, sometimes on th

Occasional profanity like "s--t" and &qu

Not much, really, though the movie could be an adv

Yes, yes and yes. Characters smoke weed in once sc

Parents need to know that this indie has more heft than the typical romantic comedy. Though it has funny moments -- the awkward dates are right on -- it also has dark undertones that may prove a little too murky for young teens. The difficulties of dating life aren't glossed over; they're excruciatingly…

Positive Messages

Nora's a mess -- she pops prescription pills when she's about to have an anxiety attack or a meltdown; she's dismissive of (and rude to) her co-workers; her best friend ridicules her own marriage; and some of the men she dates are users. Also, infidelity and drug use are hinted at.

Violence & Scariness

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Nora and her dates sleep together, sometimes on the first date (lots of kissing, but no actual nudity). Heavy petting and kissing, and some post-coital cuddling. One scene in which a couple bathes together (only their bare shoulders are visible above the water line). Married characters flirt with each other (the assumption is that they hook up).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Occasional profanity like "s--t" and "d--n."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Not much, really, though the movie could be an advertisement for Paris, with its longing gazes at the streetscape.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Yes, yes and yes. Characters smoke weed in once scene, drink a lot (tequila, vodka with a twist), and smoke cigarettes.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this indie has more heft than the typical romantic comedy. Though it has funny moments -- the awkward dates are right on -- it also has dark undertones that may prove a little too murky for young teens. The difficulties of dating life aren't glossed over; they're excruciatingly detailed (maybe a little too excruciatingly). Sex (non-explicit) and swearing are casual, as are pill-popping and drinking -- which characters appear to indulge in not just as a social lubricant but also to dull their senses so they don't feel the pain. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

Nora Wilder ( Parker Posey ) is a thirtysomething woman on the verge in writer-director Zoe Cassavetes' graceful film BROKEN ENGLISH. Weary of being single and convinced that she's "doing something wrong," her faith in, if not love, the possibility of it, is all but dismantled after flings with an actor ( Justin Theroux ) and the son of her mother's friend (Josh Hamilton) go nowhere. Though she's completely demoralized, she heeds her mother's advice to "get out there" one more time and attends a co-worker's party. There she meets Julien (Melvil Poupaud), a reed-thin Frenchman who comes on so strong that she practically runs away. But she stays, and this time the risk pays off. Instead of turning into a frog like all the other guys Nora has kissed, Julien appears to be not a prince necessarily but a decent guy. Unfortunately, he's headed back to Paris after the weekend, and when he invites her to come with him -- with no promises of what will happen down the road -- she turns practical and refuses his offer. But when she promptly regrets her decision, she heads to Paris to see if love awaits.

Is It Any Good?

What elevates Broken English above other typical, unimaginative romantic comedies is its willingness to look at how Nora sabotages herself. It's not just that guys are horny jerks who can't commit. It's also that Nora herself may be too quick to panic, to demand intimacy, to not know what she wants. "I'm just trying to figure out if this is supposed to mean something," she tells Julien after 24 hours together. She thinks love should mesmerize like magic, and yet, Paris location aside, what she finds isn't necessarily magical at the start. The movie's title refers not just to the literal language divide between Nora and Julien but also to the chasm that separates two people longing to make a connection but unsure how to trust.

Cassavetes' promise (and pedigree -- her father is the legendary John Cassavetes) is evident throughout. She allows scenes to breathe, though the start of the film meanders a little too much. (Also annoying: The movie's forgettable "wisdom" -- i.e., you have to love yourself before you can love anyone else.) The cast -- which includes Drea de Matteo as Nora's unhappily married best friend and Cassavetes' mom, Gena Rowlands -- shines. But it's Parker who's the revelation: She's still neurotic, but this time, she's genuinely lost, too. And, most important, vulnerable. When Nora finally finds what she's looking for, you're relieved and pleased, even if the ending is, well, a little too "magical."

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how romantic love is portrayed in the media -- and how that shapes people's expectations. Does it set up both men and women for a big fall? Are men and women really that different in terms of what they want out of relationships? Families can also discuss whether there's any truth to the cliché that you have to know yourself to love someone else. If so, then why?

Movie Details

• In theaters : June 22, 2007
• On DVD or streaming : August 21, 2007
• Cast : Drea de Matteo , Gena Rowlands , Parker Posey
• Director : Zoe Cassavetes
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Magnolia Pictures
• Genre : Comedy
• Run time : 96 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : sexual content, brief drug use and profanity.
• Last updated : February 13, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Broken English

Since college, Nora hasn't had much luck with men. Now in her 30s, she works in a NYC hotel going nowhere. That is, until she meets Julien. Since college, Nora hasn't had much luck with men. Now in her 30s, she works in a NYC hotel going nowhere. That is, until she meets Julien. Since college, Nora hasn't had much luck with men. Now in her 30s, she works in a NYC hotel going nowhere. That is, until she meets Julien.

• Zoe R. Cassavetes
• Parker Posey
• Melvil Poupaud
• Gena Rowlands
• 46 User reviews
• 59 Critic reviews
• 61 Metascore
• 1 win & 6 nominations

• Nora Wilder

• Vivien Wilder-Mann

• Audrey Andrews

• Mark Andrews

• Irving Mann

• Peter Andrews

• Front Desk Worker

• Elinor Gregory
• William Gregory

• Charlie Ross

• Jennifer Ross

• (as Russel Steinberg)

• Little Boy in the Park
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

• Trivia Zoe R. Cassavetes offered the role of Nora to Parker Posey without an audition.

Jean Paul Clement : Most people are together just so they are not alone. But some people want magic. I think you are one of those people.

• Alternate versions There are two versions available. The runtimes are: "1h 37m (97 min)" and "1h 33m (93 min) (United States)".
• Connections Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix/Talk to Me/Transformers/Hairspray/Broken English/My Best Friend (2007)
• Soundtracks Walking on the Moon Written and Performed by Daniel May

User reviews 46

• Sep 18, 2007
• How long is Broken English? Powered by Alexa
• July 16, 2008 (France)
• United States
• Official site (Japan)
• Official site (United States)
• Aşkın ingilizcesi
• Paris, France
• HDNet Films
• Backup Media
• Phantom Film
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $2,000,000 (estimated)
• Jun 24, 2007

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 33 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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Broken English Reviews

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 20, 2008

Broken English surprised me all around: I didn't expect to be particularly impressed with it, and instead it turns out to be not only one of my favorite films I've see this year, but it will probably earn a spot in the all-time annals for me.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 22, 2008

How Posey's neurotic, self-destructive heroine finds her way to healing is the core of this generous film, whose moral is that happiness can't begin unless you're open to its possibility.

Full Review | Jan 3, 2008

Posey's admirers will experience a sensual intoxication that fans always experience when their film goddesses are at their very best.

Full Review | Nov 22, 2007

This isn't the best independent film we've seen starring Miss Posey, but she is the reason this one works.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Nov 21, 2007

a tired retread of Sex and the City, with all the same preoccupations and issues but with none of the fun

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 15, 2007

Edgy girl-meets-boy indie for older teens and up.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 22, 2007

When Nora decides to take yet another risk against her better judgment, the film leaves to you to judge it as quixotic, vexing, or fitting.

Full Review | Aug 16, 2007

You might be a little surprised or at least amused when the caustic, tired, joyous, frantic roller coaster stops.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 10, 2007

A likable but wan romance.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 9, 2007

Ultimately, the only wisdom you leave with is the implausibly wise pocket philosophy gleaned from romantic strangers on the streets of an idealized France.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 9, 2007

...neither the story nor the well-acted characters quite engage our interest or sympathy.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 8, 2007

...eventually jumps the shark by failing to consider a major character's professional competence

Full Review | Original Score: 81/100 | Aug 3, 2007

Parker Posey is game in 'Broken English,' although the limited conception of her giggly insecure Nora Wilder is too thin for ninety-six minutes.

Full Review | Aug 2, 2007

Posey gives a committed performance, and Justin Theroux is good as an overindulged movie star. But almost nothing that's said or done here is convincing. And the energy is set at near-coma level.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Jul 27, 2007

Filmmaking is a family affair for the Cassavetes, and Zoe inherits the unpretentious, performance-driven style from her father, John, while delivering a love story that's accessible enough for mainstream audiences, a trick learned from her brother Nick.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 27, 2007

Zoe Cassavetes' new film Broken English is a delight, and as a debut film shows that we can expect good things from her.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Jul 22, 2007

Cassavetes supplies no easy answers or easy laughs, forgoing romantic-comedy beats in respect for Nora's desperation. Call this confection a romantic-dramedy with humor on wry.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 20, 2007

It's pretty clear where this is going from the first frame, though Posey's performance does keep you interested.

Broken English establishes a sympathetic character, gets Parker Posey to make her real, and then grinds her in the gears of a plot we cannot believe.

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Broken english.

Parker Posey again proves her necessity to the indie film world with her complicated performance in the feature debut of Zoe Cassavetes, who demonstrates that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

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This review was written for the theatrical release of “Broken English.”

NEW YORK — Parker Posey again proves her necessity to the indie film world with her complicated performance in Zoe Cassavetes’ feature debut. Demonstrating that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, the screenwriter-director has delivered a well-observed film boasting highly realistic performances and dialogue, if not plot elements. But it’s Posey’s fascinating portrayal of a thirtysomething Manhattan single woman looking for love that lifts the film above its “Sex and the City” predictabilities.

Posey plays Nora Wilder, who smoothly handles customer relations at a posh boutique hotel catering to the rich, famous and difficult. Still single — a fact that she is constantly reminded of by her nagging mother (Gena Rowlands) — Nora looks on with admiration at the seemingly perfect marriage of her best friend, Audrey (Drea de Matteo), and her adoring director husband (Tim Guinee).

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The difficulties of singlehood are well-demonstrated by a couple of episodes. In the first, Nora succumbs to the charm of a famous actor (Justin Theroux) only to discover that the self-obsessed lout is dating his current co-star. In the second, she goes on a blind date — set up by her mother, no less — that proves disastrous when the ex of the man (Josh Hamilton) suddenly shows up.

Ready to give up, Nora then meets a handsome and perfect Frenchman, Julien (Melvil Poupaud), who boasts a sexy accent to go along with his perfectly angled fedora. Just as the relationship is staring to jell, however, he goes back home to Paris, with Nora eventually following in an impulsive attempt to continue the relationship.

The film is ultimately more effective in isolated scenes than with its overall narrative, which becomes particularly ineffective with the Parisian interlude and the highly contrived ending. But those scenes, depicting the poignancy of someone desperately looking for emotional as well as physical connection, provide equal measures of emotion and humor, and Posey is superbly equipped to handle them. Her complicated performance provides the film with a depth not always present in the script.

BROKEN ENGLISH Magnolia Pictures/HDNet Films A Vox3 Films and Phantom Film Co. production in association with Backup Films Credits: Director-screenwriter: Zoe Cassavetes Producers: Andrew Fierberg, Jason Kliot, Joana Vicente Executive producers: Todd Wagner, Mark Cuban Director of photography: John Pirozzi Production designer: Happy Massee Music: Scratch Massive Co-producer: Keisuke Konishi Costume designer: Stacey Battat Editor: Andrew Weisblum Cast: Nora Wilder: Parker Posey Julien: Melvil Poupaud Audrey Andrews: Drea de Matteo Nick Gable: Justin Theroux Vivien Wilder-Mann: Gena Rowlands Mark: Tim Guinee Running time — 97 minutes MPAA rating: PG-13

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Broken english.

2007 Directed by Zoe Cassavetes

So Many Mr. Wrongs. So Few Mr. Rights.

Nora Wilder is freaking out. Everyone around her is either in a relationship, married, or has children. Nora is in her thirties, alone with job she's outgrown and a mother who constantly reminds her of it all. Not to mention her best friend Audrey's "perfect marriage". But after a series of disastrous dates, Nora unexpectedly meets Julien, a quirky Frenchman who opens her eyes to a lot more than love.

Parker Posey Drea de Matteo Tim Guinee Gena Rowlands Melvil Poupaud Justin Theroux Peter Bogdanovich Roy Thinnes Michael Panes Philip Pavel Dana Ivey William Wise Josh Hamilton Caitlin Keats Russell Steinberg Santo Fazio Michael Kelly John Wernke James McCaffrey Phyllis Somerville Laurent Pons Bernadette Lafont Thierry Hancisse Yarol Poupaud Sebastien Chenut Karim Gassama Jean-Paul Scarpitta Maud Geffray Patrick Cronen

Director Director

Zoe Cassavetes

Producers Producers

Jason Kliot Joana Vicente Andrew Fierberg Keisuke Konishi

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Mark Cuban Todd Wagner Steven Shainberg Christina Weiss Lurie Olivier Aknin Jean-Baptiste Babin Joel Thibout David Atlan Jackson

Writer Writer

Casting casting.

Adrienne Stern

Editor Editor

Andrew Weisblum

Cinematography Cinematography

John Pirozzi

Camera Operator Camera Operator

Production design production design.

Happy Massee

Art Direction Art Direction

Pete Zumba Selina van den Brink

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Selina van den Brink

Composer Composer

Scratch Massive

Costume Design Costume Design

Stacey Battat

Makeup Makeup

Brian Abbott Nathalie Tabareau Giovanni Giuntoli

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Nathalie Tabareau Theodora Katsoulogiannakis

Vox3 Films HDNet Films Backup Media Phantom Film

Japan France USA

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

English French

Releases by Date

20 jan 2007, 22 nov 2007, releases by country.

97 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by gal pacino ★★½ 4

-i’m at the cassavetes picture -i’m at the parker posey picture -i’m at the combination cassavetes/parker posey picture

Review by Sully ★★★★

Parker Posey self sabotaging a sexy date in order to run home for anxiety pills. That’s a mood

Review by single white femalien ★★★½ 2

parker posey is Good. hot frenchman in a dumb hat? want to say bad (the hat is very dumb) but he's very cute for a man!

movies about sad lonely rich women who can just up and quit their job and go to paris? that speaks to me. this might pair nicely with paris can wait, which isn't quite the same but both directed by rich ladies from film families about kind of similar characters! give it a shot!

Review by true_ gritty ★★★★

Neverending Parker Posey Crush

Review by Matt ★★½

I mean, lovely Parker Posey was excellent but this was such a meh film. It was weirdly not trying that hard but didn't really do or say anything. The whole thing just sort of existed then didn't.

Also they copied the end of Before Sunset for their own ending quite shamelessly. Lazy.

Review by Lucas McNelly ★★

There's more to making a Parker Posey movie than just casting Parker Posey. You have to direct the other actors too.

Review by 🌷 𝖘𝖚𝖟𝖆𝖓𝖓𝖊 🌷 ★★★

after watching a summer’s tale earlier today i really wanted to watch another melvil poupaud performance cause he was just too fine and charming. i don’t regret picking this one even though i definitely wish he had more screen time. he & parker posey were really great together and i just really wish we got more time with them together.. oh, but the end? now, i really hope that was an intentional and acknowledged homage to before sunset.

Review by Dubthrone ★★★½

Nora’s failed relationships have left her with a PTSD-like neurosis about meeting men. In perhaps the film’s most dramatic moment, after meeting Julien, when the stakes are suddenly very high, Nora commits a minor conversational faux pas, and spirals into an alarming, very nicely played, panic attack.

It stumbles at first, looking for its bearings, but by the midpoint Broken English is humming along nicely, with intimately grounded, no-nonsense direction by Zoe Cassavetes. Leaking self-confidence as she goes, Nora ping-pongs from one letdown to the next, until her best friend Audrey swoops in to the rescue. Parker Posey is pitch-perfect as Nora, while Melvil Poupaud plays the muted, carefully considerate Julien in his typically winsome way. Drea de Matteo does what some supporting performers sometimes manage, by lifting the film’s entire emotional tone in the final act. Gena Rowlands performs double Mom-duty, as both Nora’s and the director’s mothers. Colorful set that must have been.

Review by Lizzy Deane ★★★½ 1

A mumblecore(?) thinkpiece on the natural instinct of the modern American woman to feel anxiety around the modern American man. This speaks, in a way, to the frustrations of living in male-dominated spaces to the degree that it feels as though Mr. Right doesn’t exist, or that he’s also just another smug bastard. Parker Posey never loses.

Review by AntoniusBlock7 ★★★½

“Most people are together just so they are not alone. But some people want magic.”

Broken English is a low-key romantic comedy written and directed by Zoe Cassavetes, and it’s about a 30-year-old woman (Parker Posey) trying to find someone she can settle down with for life. It’s at its best in its first half as she navigates various dating situations, and Posey has some really nice moments here, displaying vulnerability on top of her usual wry humor. When she meets a Frenchman (Melvil Poupaud) and later travels to Paris to find him again, the film loses a little bit of its traction, then settles for a conventional story line, something I’d normally go for, but here it was a little bit of a letdown. A nice little film though, and as a bonus, look for Gena Rowlands and Peter Bogdanovich in small roles.

Review by Jackie ★★★½

i can’t believe i just watched a movie about how Parker Posey is undateable. i find that hard to believe, given how her dates in this were not as cool as she was. then she meets Julien (played by Melvil Poupaud), who likes her the way she is and invites her to Paris even though they barely know each other. the ending won my heart despite how it reminds me of Before Sunset. overall, this was a charming romantic dramedy and like always, i’ll watch anything that features Parker Posey 🫶🏻

Review by jeremy ★★★

Yet another movie in which none of the guys Parker Posey meets are nearly as cool as she is.

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Broken English (United States, 2007)

For her feature debut, writer/director Zoe Cassavetes has elected to tread into territory where even the best stories feels like clichés. Broken English is competently made and features a solid performance from lead actress Parker Posey, but it's the kind of film that will resonate only with a tiny fraction of the available audience. Unless a viewer's age and situation mirrors that of Posey's Nora Wilder, odds are that this movie will generate a sense of déjà vu. Casavetes tells her tale, but it's one we've already seen, and she doesn't bring much that's new or fresh to the narrative.

Approaching 40, Nora is growing increasingly despondent about her single status. Her best friend, Audrey (Drea de Matteo), is celebrating her fifth anniversary to a man Nora might have married. By day, Nora is the head of guest relations at a prestigious hotel. By night, she looks for love but constantly finds Mr. Wrong. Her would-be beaux include a cad of an actor (Justin Theroux) currently involved in another relationship and a nice guy (Josh Hamilton) who's hung up on his ex. Finally, Nora meets Julian (Melvil Poupaud), a Parisian visiting Manhattan. They hit it off but just as they're starting to connect, Julian must return to France. It's up to Nora to determine whether or not to follow him.

To Cassavetes' credit, this doesn't fall into the category of a formulaic romantic comedy. There's a little more substance than that. In fact, most of the third act is devoted to Nora's journey of self-discovery. As she learns, in order to be able to secure a future with a man, she must be comfortable with herself and her choices in life. The problem with driving home this message is that it represents the movie's least compelling 30 minutes. It's also odd that the movie chooses to end on exactly the same beat as the far superior Before Sunset . Hint to the director: never remind viewers of a better film in such an obvious way.

Nearly everything about Broken English is okay. The screenplay is okay. The cinematography, which includes shots of Paris, is okay. The direction is okay. The supporting performances are okay. The movie doesn't contain anything that allows it to stand out. It feels very much like the kind of thing I wouldn't mind watching on TV or DVD, but for which I would be unhappy paying an admission price.

This isn't Parker Posey's career-best performance, but she once again proves that she's capable of holding the viewer's attention even when the material isn't that great. She's an effective comedienne and dramatic actress, and both come into play here. Unfortunately, there's no noticeable chemistry between her and her semi-leading man, Melvil Poupaud, or the actress playing her best friend, Drea de Matteo, and this causes the relationships to feel half-formed.

Cassavetes is, of course, a member of the famous independent filmmaking clan. Her father was John Cassavetes and her mother, Gena Rowlands, makes an appearance here as Nora's well-meaning busybody of a mother. Broken English feels like a "safe" choice for a filmmaker who's getting her feet wet. It's direct and heartfelt, if ultimately only partially satisfying. This is the kind of movie that can find acceptance within the rarified atmosphere of a film festival (it premiered, was nominated for the Grand Jury prize, and was picked up for distribution at Sundance 2007), but loses its shine when released to general audiences. The movie's a little too stale and familiar to generate much excitement or enthusiasm.

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Broken English (2007)

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In a startling mature and nuanced performance, Parker Posey plays Nora Wilder, a thirty-something Manhattanite who is cynical about love and relationships, in this astute collaboration with first-time writer/director Zoe Cassavetes. Nora plugs away at her job in a posh downtown hotel and can't help but wonder what it is she has to do to find a relationship as ideal as her friend Audrey's (Drea De Matteo) "perfect marriage." It doesn't help that her overbearing mother (Gena Rowlands) takes every opportunity to remind Nora that she's still unattached. After a series of disastrous first dates, she meets Julien (Melvil Poupaud), a seemingly devil-may-care Frenchman with a passion for living. Expecting another disastrous ending, Nora tries to avoid making the same mistakes. She finds herself in Paris looking to break old patterns. Inevitably, Nora has to look inward before she can find a new outlook on life and most importantly, love.

Broken English DVD Review

A heartfelt movie that tries to examine dating in today's society.

PopEntertainment.com > Reviews > Movie Reviews > Broken English

Movie reviews.

Broken English

Broken English writer/director Zo� Cassavettes is the latest to make a mark from a famous cinematic family.  Her mother is actress Gena Rowlands (who does a cameo as the main character's mother.)  Father is the respected late writer/director/actor John Cassavettes.  (In fact, Zo� made her film debut � playing a baby � in her parents' 1971 film Minnie and Moskowitz .)  Brother Nick has also written and directed a few times. 

Zo� has inherited the family's talent for taking sometimes uncomfortably personal looks at the complicated lives of city-dwellers.  Also like many of the films created by her family, her movie is consistently interesting, artistic and well done, but not quite as good as it could be.

Broken English is the story of Nora (Parker Posey), a career woman in her 30s who is extremely competent at her job as the social director of an upscale New York hotel.  Her job isn't making her happy anymore and her love life is a complete disaster. 

Not exactly the most original storyline, but Broken English does have an interesting and surprising point of view which often saves it from turning clich�d.  We watch Nora go through a series of disastrous short-lived relationships before she meets Julien (Melvil Poupaud), a charming French man who is also living through a romantic hell (his girlfriend dumped him after he went to New York to be with her.) 

We never doubt for a second that Julien is the right man for her, but with her inability to to trust allows him to return to France without her despite the fact that he invited her to accompany him. 

However, the sense of possible loss forces Nora to completely rethink her life, and in a frankly slightly over-the-top reassessment of her life she quits her job and talks her best friend (Drea DeMatteo) into accompanying her to Paris to find her lost love.

This plan is not exactly well thought out.  She has his phone number � and yet she doesn't bother to call him to let him know she is coming.  When she gets to the City of Lights, she quickly loses the piece of paper with his number (which makes no sense because it should have been the most important thing she brought on the trip � and why didn't she program his number into her cell phone anyway?)

Interestingly, this plot loophole is where the film becomes its most intriguing.  In Paris with no idea how to find Julien, Nora just starts wandering the streets aimlessly.  She has almost no chance of finding the man, but along the way she finds herself.  Nora loses some of the desperate need for a relationship and learns how to love herself from French people she meets along the way.  This section takes the plot into interesting and unexpected directions and gives the plot a weight and significance that it had only hinted at previously.

I'm not sure exactly why this film was called Broken English � other than to give them a chance to do a cover of the tr�s- cool Marianne Faithfull song of the same name over the closing credits.  (Which I suppose is a good enough excuse.)  Yes, there are a couple of awkward gags where Nora misunderstands words in French accents (thinking "hungry" is "angry" and "happiness" is "have penis"), but those are just throwaway moments.

Strangely, the film ends on a very odd note.  Broken English uses the exact same last two lines of dialogue as Before Sunset, another (and frankly, a better) film with a similar storyline � about an American running into a French lover in Paris.  For the record, the lines were:

"You're going to miss your plane." 

"I know." 

Fade to black.  Roll credits.  Broken English repeats this word for word, action for action.

Now I'm not saying every audience in the world will notice this little crib.  Hell, giving her the benefit of the doubt, perhaps Cassavettes wasn't even aware of it.  However, bringing the memory of Before Sunset to mind did Broken English no favors in my book, it just reminded me how much more likable and complex the characters in the other film were.  Frankly, it was unneeded, because I liked the film just fine on its own before the connection was made.  It was an unnecessary distraction for an otherwise interesting film.

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Broken English (2007)

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BROKEN ENGLISH

"broken people, broken relationships".

What You Need To Know:

(RoRoRo, PCPCPC, FR, Pa, O, C, L, VV, SS, NN, AAA, DD, M) Very strong Romantic worldview that promotes emotion over reason as well as Hollywood’s politically correct definition of “love” being the height of the human experience with a very negative politically correct view of marriage as being simply “a contract,” some false religion as women practice yoga, woman meditates with chant music in the background and an occult element as a woman visits a psychic, although she later cries, “I went to a witch doctor,” and one scene where a woman visits a Catholic church and lights a candle in prayer; four obscenities (including two “f” words) and a light profanities; no violence; strong sexual content includes a lot of sexual dialogue, some married kissing, a lot of unmarried kissing, several scenes of implied fornication and couple bathes together; upper male nudity in several scenes, man seen in his underwear, woman in see-through nightgown, and brief upper female nudity in the bathtub; extremely strong alcohol use in nearly every scene of the movie as well as several scenes of drunkenness; several characters smoke cigarettes throughout the movie, one scene of marijuana use and two female characters take prescription medicines for depression; and, some miscellaneous immorality.

More Detail:

Set in New York, BROKEN ENGLISH tells the story of Nora, played by Parker Posey, as a woman in her later thirties who is still looking for that elusive “love of her life.” Driven from one broken relationship to another, stuck in a miserable job and watching her best friend’s perfect marriage fall to pieces, Nora soon meets Julian, played by Melvil Poupaud, a Frenchman who opens her eyes to true love.

The story is as simple and formulaic as that. No plot twists in this movie, but twisted morals abound. For instance, the “true love” that Julian offers Nora is a life of guilt-free fornication in which, as Julian puts it, “We have no contract; we are just meeting each other.” Somehow, Nora finds a new stasis and inner-peace in Julian’s words compared to all the other men with whom she has had no-contract-fornication. Perhaps it is Julian’s French dialect that gives Nora the sense that, one way or another, this trans-Atlantic tryst will make her life different.

The philosophical content of this movie is abhorrent. The mass media’s continued not-so-subtle attack on the biblical institution of marriage is all too apparent in BROKEN ENGLISH. Nora’s best friend, played by Drea de Matteo, is in a perceived “perfect marriage” that is actually a miserable front. Then, as Nora confides to a sage-like woman that to be married would maybe make her feel loved, the sage responds with, “Marriage is a contract. To feel love is something else entirely.”

Perhaps if our post-modern culture quit trying to squeeze marriage within the context of romance and, instead, followed a Biblical worldview of romance within the context of marriage, then our society would have happier, healthier people – unlike Nora, who must keep herself loaded with alcohol and anti-depressants to mask her spiritual brokenness.

Filled with strong sexual content, disastrous ideologies of romanticized immorality, chemical dependency, and a few brief references to false religion and occultism, BROKEN ENGLISH is an abhorrent movie that MOVIEGUIDE® cautions all people of faith and values to avoid.

Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

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Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, boulevard of broken dreams.

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'Why?" you may wonder as the end credits roll on director Alan White's "Broken."

"Why did I just watch that?"

In case you forgot, the answer is most likely summarized in two words: Heather Graham . Which is a shame, because she's not very good in it. Graham is reliably gorgeous. That much we know going in. We know it when we see her in a bikini on the beach. We know it when characters tell her how pretty she is, which they invariably do, anyway. That's one of the problems with "Broken": It tells you plenty about what you already know but doesn't show you anything worth knowing.

Among the things we already know from lots of other movies, besides how stunning Graham is, are cliches about beautiful losers with broken show-biz dreams, desperate wastrel junkies with track marks on their forearms, unshaven psycho ex-boyfriends with guns, and indie pictures with chronologically fractured narrative structures. "Broken" is one of those -- or, rather, all of them.

Graham plays Hope, an attractive Ohioan of optimistic temperament who, in the opening scene, sits herself down in front of her video camera, proclaims today the first day of the rest of her life, and expresses a hope to follow her guitar-strumming, singer-songwriting dream westward to the showbiz mecca of Los Angeles. Once there, she hopes not to fail, but to succeed. Because she is upbeat, hopeful, full of hope.

On the sandy shores of the Pacific, the irresistible force of Hope meets the implacable heart of Will ( Jeremy Sisto ), who is persistent in his efforts to flatter her, seduce her and shoot her up with heroin. He is willful, she is willing (in a hopeful kind of way), and after she breaks up with him, he will not accept that it's over. As Will explains his philosophy: Where there's a Will, there's a way. He says that.

"Broken" really takes place during one long dark night of the soul at the Blue Star Diner in outer Los Angeles, where an all-but-abandoned Hope, now a hardened food-service worker, toils on an endless shift. Creepy night-owl patrons drift into the joint, taunting her with reminders of her former naivete and offering ill portents of Hopes Yet to Come. What will she be -- a party girl or a call girl, a waitress or a songstress or a homeless? She must settle on her fate tonight. Meanwhile, everybody wants coffee .

It has only been a few months, but Hope has been down so long it looks like up to her. Still, she hasn't given up hope. What she has given up is Will who, driven by desire and accompanied by some great Brian Jonestown Massacre songs and a handgun, is slooooowly but inexorably making his way through the desert, the darkness, the flashbacks, the fantasy sequences, and the other tortuous Lynchian detours designed to evoke " Mulholland Drive ," toward a climactic confrontation.

Here's an example of why "Broken" doesn't work: Two guys -- a producer and a director -- sit in a booth discussing a nebulous movie project. It's about a girl. The producer notices that Hope, the waitress, looks exactly the way he imagined the girl in the movie, whose crazy junkie boyfriend can't deal after she breaks up with him. Hope is uncannily intrigued. The producer mentions that the script isn't finished but some non-gratuitous nudity may be required because the girl has sex with her boyfriend's dealer in order to score some smack. We see the script on the table. It's called "Broken." Before you can say self-reflexive, Hope is having gratuitous sex with her boyfriend's dealer in order to score some smack! It's a flashback, or a memory, or a hallucination, but hey: It's trite. It's also insufficiently nude to have justified the previous scene.

"Broken," like Graham, is lovely to look at -- the former in an Edward Hopper-like way and the latter in a Sandro Botticelli-like way. But compare this movie to, say, " Boogie Nights ," and you'll get an inkling of how a film performance owes at least as much to directorial, editorial and scripting skills as it does to acting chops.

Poor Graham is too often left standing around, bugging her eyes in desperation or looking bereft, as if she were holding an overwritten script in one hand and a highlighter in the other, just below the edge of the frame.

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Broken (2007)

Rated R for drug use, strong sexuality, violence and pervasive language

Heather Graham as Hope

Jeremy Sisto as Will

Jake Busey as Vince

Tess Harper as Clare

Linda Hamilton as Karen

Chad Cunningham as David

Directed by

• Drew Pillsbury

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Broken Roads Review

Broken roads has ideas that could have made it an rpg to rival disco elysium, instead it runs out of steam almost immediately..

This might sound familiar: a devastating tragedy has ushered in the apocalypse, and in its wake people have been forced to adapt to a harsh, lawless climate. Australian studio Drop Bear Bytes has designed a classic turn-based RPG set in (you guessed it) a post-apocalyptic Australia, reducing it to an unforgiving desert full of man-eating spiders, raiders, and even bloodthirsty kangaroos. While that setup is a little too familiar, what's supposed to set Broken Roads apart is an intricate morality system alongside its more traditional RPG character sheet. That seems incredibly promising at first, making me look forward to tackling some difficult moral questions – but after 30 hours of play, it’s clear Broken Roads falls distinctly short of its own goals, to the point it feels somewhat unfinished.

Broken Roads Gameplay Screenshots

The specific circumstances under which you meet your adventuring party change depending on your background, but generally nothing connects you to the group of characters you travel with other than bad fortune. You’ll always end up travelling to the town of Brookton, which is quickly attacked by raiders from a technologically advanced settlement and burned to the ground, and then inexplicably stay with the town’s only survivors instead of going back to wherever you came from. Broken Road’s characters and plot are immediately so paper thin that they’re genuinely difficult to talk about – you’re introduced to a bunch of people who don’t have much personality other than being hard boiled survivors, and then you essentially become responsible for finding them a new home. Why are you getting involved? Why do a bunch of strangers trust you to make the hard decisions? Party members mostly don’t speak again after their initial introduction, so it’s difficult to tell. Broken Roads even introduces some magical realism later on to keep things interesting, but these plot points aren’t really set up well.

The question at the heart of this story is one many post apocalyptic games ask: who decides who should live and who should die? But Broken Roads just doesn’t have any interesting answers, which is particularly disappointing when an intricate morality system is supposed to be its centrepiece. Where other RPGs are happy to let you choose a rough alignment such as lawful good or neutral evil and call it a day, Broken Roads describes character morality by using actual philosophical principles and gives you a full questionnaire to determine your character’s beliefs. Are you a Nihilist who puts themselves first in any given situation, or are you more of a Humanist who wants the best possible outcome for the largest number of people? That’s interesting in theory, but because you have so little control over what happens, this idea falls pretty flat.

Do you think the post-apocalyptic setting in games has been overdone?

There are very few conversations involving a moral choice in the first place, and you’re locked out of pretty much all other conversation options once you’ve started down a given alignment path, leaving no opportunities to try something drastically different later. In that way, the hard decisions Broken Roads teases you with are actually pretty straightforward, and the story doesn’t change in any interesting ways from the very few moral choices you can make anyway. For example, you can involve yourself in a town’s elections, but which mayor gets chosen doesn’t have any consequences on the larger events, and isn’t even brought up again in any meaningful way after the fact.

One time I even rescued a person only for them to die immediately afterwards, completely without explanation or acknowledgement from any other characters. This could well be a bug, but it’s by no means clear – sometimes quests fail or resolve themselves if you don’t get to them in time, though these similarly have no effect that I can see on the storyline or your party. I went back a few times to see if different decisions would dramatically change anything, but they largely boiled down to disappointing dialogue differences: do you want to be mean or helpful? Broken Roads didn’t give me enough reasons to care about what I was doing as a result, and when I did make the effort, the rewards were pretty paltry.

Broken Roads is often just a long line of fetch quests, which doesn’t really make it feel as if you’re fighting for survival in the Outback. It’s also frequently tedious stuff – in order to infiltrate a community of philosophers, I have to talk to everyone , debate some characters in philosophy, and then scour several cities for a collection of philosophy books before I can proceed. This does make some sense, I’m making an effort in order to befriend a community, after all. It’s just… not fun to do, and it’s often not clear that you need to complete a random side quest to actually continue with the main task. Sometimes a character will ask me something, but forget important details (for example, exactly how many of a specific item they are actually asking for), leaving me to look it up in the journal. A lot of quests are busy work with no alternative, like exhausting every conversation option with a character. Sometimes, I even had to repeat conversations I already had in order to advance a quest. Broken Roads either tells me exactly where to go, or it tells me nothing at all, and both can be equally frustrating.

You can get into fights along the way, though battles happen very rarely either as part of the story (which can mostly be avoided) or as random encounters while travelling the world map (which you can choose to flee from). Combat, which is turn-based in classic RPG fashion, is incredibly frustrating thanks to a very rudimentary UI that makes choosing targets difficult, as well as enemy AI that makes opponents do almost nothing but attack you constantly – even if they kill their allies or set themselves on fire in the process. It doesn’t really matter whether you fight a band of raiders or some angry kangaroos, as these fights play out pretty much the same every time, hampered by slow animations, a lack of enemy variety, bugs, and few really interesting skills to shake things up.

Malindy's favourite turn-based RPGs

Speaking of angry kangaroos – while it’s not very exciting to look at, a lot of love has clearly gone into Broken Roads’ Australian setting. The writing contains plenty of Australian in-jokes and a lot of slang that those of us who don’t speak Aussie can even hover over for a translation. And though it may not deliver in terms of story, the writing is very detailed and atmospheric, even if the occasional voice-over narration is pretty difficult to listen to. It’s just a shame that writing doesn’t deliver where it matters most.

Broken Roads is an ambitious RPG that can’t meet the expectations it sets for itself. It asks you to invest in an intricate morality system only to not end up making good use of it, giving you choices that don’t lead to much. A lot of this could be forgiven if the story held up, but there really isn’t much of a story to begin with, despite the philosophical angle Broken Roads tries very hard to get across. Couple this disappointing journey’s interesting but poorly executed ideas with pointless and often busted combat, and Broken Roads lives up to its name in all the wrong ways.

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