Romanian Film Festival comes to Lincoln Center, bringing with it the pleasures ...
The fourth film by Muntean, is a slow-moving account of a man’s decision to leave his wife. Set in latter-day Bucharest and comprised of several dozen transfixing long shots, the film centers on Paul, a middle-aged banker described by one reviewer as a cross between Adam Sandler and George Clooney, give or take thirty pounds. (The haircut is Sandler’s; the sharky good-guy smile, Clooney’s.) He’s six months into an affair with his daughter’s orthodontist—Raluca, a pretty blonde half his age—and comes across as an attentive father and a dutiful if disinterested husband whose mind is often elsewhere. The curtain lifts several days before Christmas, in the calm-before-the-storm of holiday activity. There are gifts to buy and family obligations to attend to, which, unbeknownst to Paul’s wife, will be rendered meaningless before the new year.In the opening scene,
