HONEYMOON
A film by Dan Sallitt
1998, 90 minutes
1998, 90 minutes
No. 266
Narrative
Narrative
Description
In New York City, Mimi (EDITH MEEKS) and Michael (DYLAN McCORMICK), in their thirties, are close friends after a brief and unsuccessful dating interlude years before. Michael has remained in love with Mimi over the years, but Mimi, who has just broken up with her long-time boyfriend Tommy (PETER JOSEPH), seems unwilling to try romance with Michael a second time. The spark between them is kindled again, however, during a weekend picnic outing, and Mimi, suddenly enthusiastic, proposes to Michael abruptly. The two marry immediately and head off on a honeymoon to Pennsylvania without ever having slept with each other.
But the honeymoon goes terribly wrong: an anxious Mimi draws attention to a sexual hesitation on Michael's part, and in no time the wedding night becomes a nightmare of recriminations, with Michael unable to perform sexually and Mimi feeling blamed and lashing out defensively. Over the next few days, the couple tries to get past their problems, but Michael's sexual anxiety and Mimi's defensive reactions prove a deadly combination. With the marriage hanging by a thread, the couple try to resolve their problems against all odds....
But the honeymoon goes terribly wrong: an anxious Mimi draws attention to a sexual hesitation on Michael's part, and in no time the wedding night becomes a nightmare of recriminations, with Michael unable to perform sexually and Mimi feeling blamed and lashing out defensively. Over the next few days, the couple tries to get past their problems, but Michael's sexual anxiety and Mimi's defensive reactions prove a deadly combination. With the marriage hanging by a thread, the couple try to resolve their problems against all odds....
Reviews
"I was stunned by the verisimilitude of Dan Sallitt's HONEYMOON, which captures much of the action in long takes at medium distance… HONEYMOON deals with a couple's…desperate hunger for intimacy in a way that's startlingly direct and unaffected and real."—Scott Tobias, critic, The Onion
"Not many movies are willing or able to hack their way through the tangled, complicated emotional territory of Dan Sallitt's HONEYMOON. This funny, harrowing, lucid movie is so mature about sex and human relations that it puts to shame the bulk of what passes for 'adult' entertainment in American cinema. In its deceptively simple way, HONEYMOON pulls off something quite difficult—namely, the illumination of the divide between expectations and reality in the lives of ordinary people."—Kent Jones, programmer, the Film Society of Lincoln Center
"A tough, artful exploration of marriage, friendship and sex that completely respects its audience, HONEYMOON has real content, and that is what is lacking in most independent films today. It's the only independent film by a new director that I've seen—and I see a lot of films by new directors—that has kept me thinking about it. I'd like to see it again."—Bill Krohn, American correspondent, Cahiers du cinema
