Search - Yes on DVD

B.J. W. (analogkid01) from CHICAGO, IL
Reviewed on 7/5/2025...

Writer/director Sally Potter rocked my world in 1992 with "Orlando" starring the otherworldly Tilda Swinton, and...some other people, who cares. (Okay okay, Lothaire Bluteau, John Wood, Quentin Crisp, Jimmy Somerville, and a pre-Titanic Billy Zane.) But where Orlando was a masterful case study in subtlety, patience, and flow, Potter's 2004 film "Yes" is regrettably clunky.

Veteran actors Joan Allen and Sam Neill play a long-married couple going through the motions. Allen's character has no name and is referred to only as "She"; She soon meets He (Simon Abkarian), a Lebanese refugee, a former doctor now working as a chef. She's husband is named Anthony.

The film exists under a layer of artificiality. The dialogue is in an unnatural iambic pentameter, voiceovers are frequent, and the cinematography is laden with special effects. Characters speak in philosophical diatribes rather than natural conversation. All these layers of artificiality prevent the viewer from truly connecting with any of the characters. (Do I feel the same way about Shakespeare, then? Ehhhhhhhhhhh yeah kinda. At least Shakespeare's plots are more coherent and universal.)

Potter could best be described as a multi-media avant-garde artist. She writes, she composes music, she conceives performance art pieces, and she makes the occasional film. "Yes" could be considered an experimental film, but unfortunately experimental films have a tendency to be a bit...inscrutable. There's a plot in here somewhere but damned if I can find it.

Why does She take He back after the incredibly harsh words they exchanged? Why does He decide to go back to Lebanon after making the difficult decision to leave there in the first place? Why are She and He even attracted to each other in the first place? Why does He get into a theological discussion with his coworkers which devolves into violence? Why does She abandon her teenage daughter who's obviously going through some serious self-image issues? The whole film is an exercise in frustration and nonexistent motivation.

I've also seen Potter's 2017 film "The Party" and recall being similarly unimpressed. Perhaps "Orlando" was lightning captured in a bottle, but no one can or should take that achievement away from her.

Grade: D+

YES DVD SALLY POTTER

S. T. Wood | London.U.K. | 05/12/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Quite the most intelligent DVD I have seen in years. Written immediately after 9/11 it is a moving love story, with witty disalogue. This is real life, political as we all live politics, whether an MP in London, a low wage earner washing up in a big kitchen hotel, or a struggling immigrant. It defines what it is to be human, whoever we are, in a rivetting short moment in the two main characters lives. surprisingly the dialogue is in iambic poetry, but this rarely intrudes as it is spoken so well, and it adds an intensity to the speech. It also has a sort of Greek chorus in the form of a cleaner who sees all without herself being seen or acknowledged. The results is deeply philosophical and makes one think about a huge range of issues,war,love, marriage, immigration, racial prejudice, inequality, teenage difficulties, etc. etc. Camera work is highly creative, unusual angles and even CCTV footage. This is essential viewing .the only problem is `I could only buy Area 1 DVD and that cannot be played in the UK. This is crazy as the film is about London. My early copies were Area 2, so they are about, and well worth the searc h."