Nerve Endings Firing Away

Gina: Is all right good enough? Is all right good enough for you, Mr. Gerhardt?
Chancellor of the Exchequer: I think all right is a lot more than many expected.
Gina: So lots more mothers die the day they give birth? Lots more children die before they’re five? Lots and lots more die of diseases that are just a jab and a jolt to people like you and me?
Herr Gerhardt: Young lady, I think it might be helpful for you to look at it the other way around – thousands will benefit from what we do today.
Gina: I can see that, it’s just, you know… tough, for those on the wrong side of the line.

The Girl in the Cafe is that kind of movie that begins at a personal level as a simple tale of two strangers brought together by circumstances and eventually falling in love. But soon before you realize it, it transcends that microscopic view of most movies to assume a larger than life purpose of making you think beyond yourself. Lawrence (Bill Nighy), a career diplomat in the British government runs into this mysterious sad-looking girl, Gina (Kelly MacDonald) at a local cafe. Although they are largely a mismatched pair by any standards, they seem to find each other’s company entertaining.

A bumbling middle-aged man married to his profession and worn out by the bureaucratic delays of world politics, Lawrence is intrigued by the young girl’s innocence and simple beauty. He finds himself lacking for words and often regrets his words as soon as he says them but Gina provides that calm soothing effect that would put any shy guy at ease. When you think this movie is walking down the lines of Lost in Translation, it suddenly takes a turn when Lawrence asks Gina to join him at the G8 summit in Iceland. Gina asks the top level diplomats questions (see the quote above) that we wished we could ask. Lawrence’s character is so sad that sometimes you wish she would just shut up because she might be jeopardizing his career. But then he makes no attempt to do so himself leading us to believe that even after being worn down by years of service in bureaucracy, there is still a glimmer of hope alive that things should be different. The only time he doubts her is when she admits that she was in prison and suddenly his colleagues’ warnings that she might be a planted protestor begin to seem true. It isn’t in his nature to be confrontational but he cannot keep himself from asking her, as they part at the airport.

Lawrence: Tell me, why were you in prison?
Gina: I hurt a man.
Lawrence: Why?
Gina: Because he hurt a child, killed a child.
Lawrence: Your child?
Gina: Does it matter whose child?

That simple exchange of words brings us back to the elephant in the room that things aren’t as simple as they seem and this is no tale of two mismatched people in love. The movie is quite relevant for today’s times and although we aren’t shown one single sign of suffering that the protogonists are talking about, we have seen those images of grinding poverty almost thousand times over. The bitter truth that the fate of millions is in the hands of so few people couldn’t have been better emphasized. Although Britain may have been painted as the savior of the world, the movie provided interesting insights into the behavior of various nations’ representatives. Especially United States who keep insisting on the power of international trade to solve global poverty mindless of the fact that sometimes inequitable opportunities can simply deepen the divide. A little compassion without making the people in need too reliant on alms can probably do a whole lot of good.

Overall, the movie is a great watch and although it ends on a utopian note, it does reinforce your belief in hope and optimism. I say, all credit goes to director David Yates and writer Richard Curtis for making important points subtly and without going down the preachy way. Of course, Kelly McDonald’s Emmy-winning performance and Bill Nighy amazing portrayal of a career diplomat consumed by his work are the icing on this cake. There is even a desi connection to this movie, one of Lawrence’s colleague Sunita is played by Meneka Das.