A refreshingly appointed slice-of-life ode to Brooklyn, New York, Wayne Wang's low-key drama is quietly enchanting in its refusal to trump up its subject matter, which includes drugs, adoption and misanthropic writers. Everything is presented in a matter-of-fact manner, stemming, it seems, from writer-novelist Paul Auster's credible and detailed screenplay, which doesn't offer tidy solutions for its characters' conflicts. William Hurt and Harvey Keitel marvelously inhabit the film's almost-mystical portrayal of its beloved borough. Keitel's lengthy and stunningly delivered monologue near the close of the film almost singularly makes the whole picture something special. Much of the cast and filmmakers reunited for a largely improvised (and less successful) "sequel," entitled Blue in the Face, which adopted a looser, less-structured attitude, but retains many of the same characters and locations.
〜大切なものはタバコの煙のよう・・・〜
1990年ブルックリン。14年間、毎日、同じ時間に同じ場所で写真を撮り続けるタバコ屋の店主、オーギー・レン。最愛の妻を事故で亡くして以来、書けなくなった作家、ポール。18年間前にオーギーを裏切り、別の男と結婚をした恋人、ルビー。強盗が落とした大金を拾った為に命を狙われる黒人少年、ラシード。それぞれの人生が織りなす糸のように絡み合い、そして感動のクライマックスへと向かっていく・・・。まるで、良質の短編小説を読んでいるような幸福感があふれるヒューマン・ドラマ。
