From award-winning screenwriter Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral) and acclaimed director David Yates (State of Play), comes The Girl In The Cafe, a funny, touching love story with a powerful humanitarian message. Mild-mannered Lawrence (Bill Nighy) is a dedicated civil servant who doesn’t have much going on in his life except for his career. But that changes when he meets Gina (Kelly Macdonald), a mysterious, attractive woman who he impulsively invites to the G8 conference in Iceland, a very important event for the world and Lawrence’s career. As the conference on world poverty progresses, Gina makes her displeasure with policies of the G8 conference leaders well known, much to Lawrence’s chagrin. Together, this unlikely couple might just change history or at least his employment status.

CRITIQUE

Produced for British TV and shown on HBO a few months ago, The Girl in the Café is a subdued romantic drama coupled with a political undercurrent in regards to the poverty stricken parts of the world, such as Africa which has over a dozen of the world’s poorest cities. Interestingly, the film depicts the 2005 G8 summit which in reality happened only a few months ago, and stemming from it leaders pledged $50 billion in annual aid to Africa per year. The film focuses very much on Lawrence and Gina as they get to know each other, and once in Reykjavik Gina feels compelled to question Lawrence’s boss and later the prime minister on the Millennium Goals, which address world poverty. Once you strip away the backdrop of the G8, which is presented in a somewhat interesting light, the film is pretty bare as there isn’t much story present. At a running time of 95 minutes, the film is fairly concise but the script lacks character development (judging by the commentary Richard Curtis basically jumped into the characters at the café, though director David Yates wanted to open with a few scenes of Lawrence in his apartment).

The developing romance between Lawrence and Gina doesn’t feel too realistic, but it works fine. Bill Nighy’s character is very much in his own state, a sort of shy loner who rarely speaks up for himself, except near the film’s end when he realizes Gina was right in questioning his superiors, but in terms of performance Nighy plays it too subdued as he speaks softly and drags out sentences. Kelly Macdonald’s performance is fine as she manages to keep her character within a realm of interest, though her heavy accent is sometimes off-putting. The supporting performances of which there aren’t very many are solid nevertheless. In terms of production, cinematography looks very nice (especially the tracking shots in Iceland), the music is supportive of the film’s theme, and direction by Yates is pretty good.

THE VIDEO

HBO presents The Girl in the Café in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. Video quality looks pretty decent with nice colors and good print quality. Tiny flaws persist in some scenes, but they’re not distracting. Optional subtitles include English, French and Spanish.

THE AUDIO

HBO presents The Girl in the Café in both English and Spanish 2.0 Dolby Surround. The English audio presentation is fairly good as dialogue and music is presented clearly.

THE EXTRAS

There are a few extras on this DVD starting with a laid-back and casual conversation of the movie in the audio commentary with director David Yates and writer Richard Curtis. There are some interesting tidbits about production and issues presented in the film, but that’s about it.

Also offered are 3 deleted scenes running a combined 3 and a half minutes, a very brief behind-the-scenes clip that is purely promotional lasting also 3 and a half minutes, and finally a one-minute trailer for One featuring celebrities asking “for your voice” in the campaign “to make poverty history.”

FINAL THOUGHT

The Girl in the Café presents an interesting backdrop (the G8 summit) and an important issue (world poverty), a decent drama with some romantic and political elements, but it’s not realized well enough to make for a compelling film. The DVD comes recommended to viewers interested in the film’s subject, but others can just skip it.