Who's in It: Sarah Polley, Tim Robbins, Javier Cámara, Julie Christie
The Basics: An isolated, mostly silent young woman (Polley) passes herself off as a nurse and tends to a wounded and temporarily blinded man (Robbins). He talks, she listens, and they become as close as two people can be when only one of them is actually talking.
What's the Deal? Most of the action takes place on an oil rig off the coast of Ireland, and because it's about a wounded man and the woman who takes care of him, it's almost like Breaking the Waves — minus Lars Von Trier's Woman-was-Born-to-Suffer gymnastics.
What's Going On With Polley? That's the big question here. She barely speaks, so you don't always know why she does what she does. What's the phone call to Christie about? Why Ireland? Why tell someone you're a nurse when you're not? What gives? It's not at all like in Dawn of the Dead where Polley's objectives — kill zombies and run from them — were clear.
Why It's Mostly Good: Because it trusts you not to need immediate answers to its ambiguous plot mysteries. Because Robbins doesn't ham it up. Because it's less weepy than director Isabel Coixet's first movie, My Life Without Me.
Earlier Movie to Check Out: I like one of Coixet's films from the '90s called Things I Never Told You starring Lili Taylor, Andrew McCarthy and Alexis Arquette back when she was a he. But then, Taylor could be in crap, and I'd probably want to watch it.