Girl in the Café

At first I thought it’s another British romantic comedy. It has the look of it – a man, a girl, random acquaintance – the usual set up.

 

Well, was I off the mark, by a loooooong shot.

 

It’s a movie with a message, a political one in that matter.

 

And it has a target too – the upcoming G8 meeting. The message is that one person can make a difference. The goal is African poverty.

 

Just so you know.

 

 

Synopsis (from HBO website)

 

An HBO Films/BBC co-production, The Girl in the Cafè is both a romantic character drama with comedic elements, and a powerful political wake-up call by Richard Curtis, the acclaimed writer of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Love Actually. Curtis' first film since Love Actually, The Girl in the Cafè literally addresses one the most important questions of 2005: Will this be the year when world powers seriously address the issue of world poverty once and for all? The film is a passionate plea to humankind - wrapped in a love story, a comedy and a unique drama. It is a call to arms that shamelessly sets out to entertain, inform and challenge audiences to act. Above all, the film seeks to raise awareness about the important political choices facing the G8 leaders at the next Summit, in Scotland in 2005, and for all of our actions to match our principles.

Set and filmed in London and Iceland (where the fictional G8 Summit of the film takes place), The Girl in the Cafè follows the journey of Lawrence, a lonely bureaucrat working for the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer, after he meets an enigmatic woman named Gina in a cafè. After a couple of dates, he takes a chance and invites her on a weekend trip to Reykjavik, where he'll be working the G8 conference. His team's hope is to push an agenda the Millennium Goals agreed to at the 2000 G8, which if met will greatly decrease world poverty by 2015. This conference is especially crucial, as little has been pledged so far, but compromise is almost always a given.

As she learns more, Gina (to Lawrence's initial horror) becomes increasingly outspoken at the conference, challenging his boss, representatives of other nations, and even the English Prime Minister to do more to end poverty and save dying mothers and children. For his part, Lawrence begins to wonder who Gina really is, even as their physical connection intensifies. Lawrence's bosses warn him that Gina may cost him his job - the one thing he ever cared about until Gina. While the romance reaches a bittersweet place, Gina's courage ends up changing Lawrence's staid life - and perhaps even influences the politicians who wield the power to save millions of lives.

The two leads of The Girl in the Cafè are Bill Nighy, who turned in a memorable portrayal of the aging rocker in Curtis' Love Actually (he won multiple awards for the role, including BAFTA and LA Film Critics Association honors), and who will appear in the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and Kelly Macdonald, whose credits include Finding Neverland (as Peter Pan), Gosford Park, Elizabeth and Trainspotting. The Girl in the Cafè was directed by David Yates, who won numerous awards for directing the UK miniseries "State of Play." Yates is slated to direct the next "Harry Potter" movie, as well as the film version of "Brideshead Revisited."