Broken English is writer/director Zoe Cassavetes’ film debut starring Parker Posey as Nora Wilder, a thirty-something, upper middle class female stuck in a husband-finding funk. I recently picked up the Broken English DVD, released August 21, 2007, and found it to be quite a rewarding pick, especially for any female who has learned that you have to find love and happiness within yourself before you can share this with a partner. Nora Wilder's character left me giggling as she became downright confused, frustrated, and full of wiggles as she goes through and tackles this difficult life lesson.
Nora Wilder has a life full of just about everything she could ever need. She’s a graduate of Sarah Lawrence, a single female living on her own in a downtown Manhattan apartment. She has long-time friends and family relatively close and a solid career in charge of guest services at a posh New York hotel. All in all, it appears Nora has her ducks waddling in a nice, straight row.
On the flip-side of this coin though, we learn that there is a darker side to Nora's ducky world. She has spent eight years working in guest services, not because she enjoys this position, but basically for her lack of venturing to do anything else with her career. She’s feeling pressure from her mother, Vivien (Gena Rowlands, Cassavetes’ real-life mother), to find the “right” man, and of course, Mom has planned the perfect route to make this happen for her daughter.
Nora long ago reached the level where her lack of success on the dating scene eroded her self confidence and her sense of security began to splinter. Self-pity took over Nora’s life and the audience begins to feel she’s close to being incapable of independently living on her own.
Nora’s loneliness and her quest to overcome the stigmas of female singlehood are further spurred forward by the five-year “perfect marriage” of her best friend Audrey (Drea de Matteo, The Sopranos), as well as Nora’s own apathy regarding the dating grind, as she cranks through dates faster than VIPs can check into the hotel.
Though I found the first part of this film slow and drawn out to tell the story of Nora’s two-sided coin, I did find myself afterwards rooting for her and almost waved at my screen to get her attention and say, “Girlfriend, you need to get out of this rut!”
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