Review: It May Be Called ‘How He Fell in Love,’ But Its Female Star Is The Reason To See It

Amy Hargreaves anchors this thoughtful look at an evolving affair between a young musician and a married woman.

作者： Steve Greene

Jul 8, 2016 11:45 am

@stevebruin

“How He Fell in Love”

The title of writer/director Marc Meyers’ third feature film is a curious thing. Rather than fixate on one half of a relationship, “How He Fell in Love” instead becomes a much fuller look at how a relationship travels from casual acquaintances into unanticipated territory. With a sharp focus on an evolving relationship between Travis (Matt McGorry), an ambling part-time musician and Ellen, a married yoga studio instructor, Meyers foregoes easy judgment or condemnation to give a full view of a love with consequences.

Skillfully tracking the emotional parabola of their affair, “How He Fell in Love” gives breathing room to each stage of their interactions, beginning with their chance meeting at a wedding. As the two spend time together, casually flirting inside the yoga studio and beyond, their coded parsing of clues and discussions with friends afterwards help widen the scope of their potential romantic involvement. Early on in their friendship, when Travis visits Ellen’s house for a market research survey, Meyers switches to the footage on Travis’ work handheld camera; it’s like an audition tape for a life-altering romance.

McGorry plays Travis as a subdued romantic chameleon, adapting to both Ellen’s full affection and the fleeting attention of old flame Monica (Britne Oldford). His stagnation, both in his music career and his day job, makes the mutual sparks between he and Ellen all the more fulfilling.

As the woman caught between two different kinds of love, it’s Hargreaves who really shines here, conveying Ellen’s confidence to take what she wants. Hargreaves’ best moments find Ellen reveling in her newfound happiness, but acknowledging that this discovery is tinged with an expiration date: Either the fling’s or her marriage’s.

Despite Travis and Ellen’s breezy, walk-and-talk chemistry, Meyers wisely prizes the moments when the two are trading wordless glances, trying to decipher each other’s in turn. In the moments before the two go to bed together for the first time, their silent undressing reveals more about the pair than any portent-filled dialogue could. It’s refreshing to see Meyers trust that natural interaction to carry the story along — despite Travis’ musical aspirations, the film’s score is sparse. As the two settle into a comfortable cycle of illicit meet-ups, Meyers makes sure to keep Ellen’s wedding band in frame, even when she’s not making a point to take it off.

After existing only in theory for much of the film’s first third, the arrival of Ellen’s husband Henry completes the film’s triangle. Mark Blum brings welcome calm to Henry, even as the clues of Travis and Ellen’s relationships begin to seep into his home and social life. As Henry’s skepticism fades into something more certain, Meyers and Blum avoid making him a too-obvious foil to Travis’ youthful reservedness. As all of the main characters openly acknowledge their shortcomings, it keeps their situation from becoming a melodramatic cautionary tale.

“How He Fell in Love” is a distinctly New York story, but the production design balances the familiar Manhattan exteriors with the counterintuitive blank slate whiteness of the couple’s Holiday Inn rendezvous point. From their first encounter, the romance comes from their conversation and emotional connection, rather than any grand gesture. When the two finally decide to switch their preferred venue to somewhere upstate, you can see the colors pop and the drab, nondescript hotel wallpaper give way to vibrant, verdant roadtrip stops.

Ellen’s relationship with the two main men in her life aren’t played against each other as a convenient good-love/bad-love distinction, but one well-timed match cut does mark the difference in her demeanor around her husband and her lover. That complicated juggling also works through Meyers’ observant script, particularly one detail that resurfaces well after it’s introduced, before the audience can realize its significance.

But in the film’s hour of need, after some irreversible character choices, “How He Fell in Love” finally pays off its title by following the stone tossed in the pond rather than the ripples. In light of the finely-balanced story that precedes it, devoting much of the film’s closing quarter-hour to a redemption thread feels misplaced. Still, Travis and Ellen’s final meeting retains the bittersweet hallmarks of their best moments elsewhere. Regardless of who it sets its sights on, “How He Fell in Love” tells a complete tale without being tidy, fitting for a tale representative of love’s fickleness.

男女主第一次相遇是在一次婚禮上，婚禮本來就是容易讓人傷感和浪漫的地方，何況結(jié)婚的又是男主的前女友，男主難免會(huì)有一種失敗感。

男女主在等車的時(shí)候遇上，明顯女方比較主動(dòng)，還留了自己的名片。

男主目前有個(gè)交往的女朋友，長得漂亮，身材也好，但是男主是做音樂的，女孩子不時(shí)只是做些家政的活，兩個(gè)共同語言也少，明顯男主不是很上心，也不曾帶女方認(rèn)識(shí)自己的朋友，他從婚禮回來之天，女朋友主動(dòng)找來，但早上馬上離去，因?yàn)樗惺艿搅四兄鲗?duì)他的冷漠，因而生氣離去。

男主開始按名片讓了女主的幾次瑜伽課，又有了一些其它的互動(dòng)，女演員1970年生，演此片時(shí)45歲，男主1986年生，演此片時(shí)29歲，兩人相差16歲，不過因?yàn)榕魃聿暮?，狀態(tài)好，不是有種少女的羞澀感，因此兩個(gè)雖然明顯感覺有年齡差，但差別卻又不是那么大，外型上感覺很登對(duì)，男方血?dú)夥絼?，女主小鳥依人。

男主不是那種比較堅(jiān)持自見的人，基本跟著感覺走，他雖然覺得跟現(xiàn)在交往的性感女朋友不是很來電，但也不主動(dòng)分手，女友找上門來也來者不拒。

遇上45歲更成熟，生活和狀態(tài)更加穩(wěn)更風(fēng)情成種的女主后，他也順其自然的主動(dòng)聯(lián)系，并沒有想太多出軌不出軌的，走一步看一步，只不過感情更深入之后，明顯還是要面對(duì)這個(gè)問題，不過兩個(gè)人逐步走近的過程很甜，男女主演表演得都很到位.

最后結(jié)局的處理是很贊的，女主覺得自己還是愛丈夫，離不開目前穩(wěn)定的生活，她不能再來一次了，女主的丈夫出來面對(duì)了男主，稱讓他走開，并打了他。

男主接受了這個(gè)結(jié)局，最后一幕，面對(duì)來告別的女主，雖然兩人都有感情，但是沒有再過多的接觸，畢竟結(jié)局就是這樣，不能再走下去，就好好的道別。

男主恢復(fù)了與性感女朋友的來往，開始出去游玩，開始盡量認(rèn)真的與女友交往，亦開始好好的做音樂，愛過一次，經(jīng)歷了一些成長，愛的過程本身就是收獲。