Advertisement

Movies & TV Movies & TV Reviews

Museum Hours

MUSEUM HOURS (Jem Cohen). 107 minutes. Opens Friday (July 4). For venues and times, see listings. Rating: NNNNN


If you came out of Before Midnight wondering why they don’t make more movies like that, you’re going to want to see Museum Hours as soon as possible.

Like Richard Linklater’s exquisite continuation of Jesse and Celine’s story, Jem Cohen’s delicate two-hander is a conversation piece exploring the simpatico connection between a curious Canadian (Mary Margaret O’Hara) who’s travelled to Vienna to visit a sick relative and a slightly older guard (Bobby Sommer) at the wonderful Kunsthistorisches Museum, whom she asks for directions.

These are two middle-aged people who share certain interests and enjoy each other’s company. They wander around the museum, and occasionally outside of it, talking about the way they see art while surrounded by its endless richness and glory. And delicately, gradually, Cohen reveals the movie’s thesis, which is that art can be found in just about anything.

This isn’t a new idea, and in fact other movies have made this argument so strenuously that it sours the experience of watching them. (I’m looking at you and your stupid plastic bag, American Beauty.)

But aside from including a docent’s lecture on the complexity of Brueghel, Cohen doesn’t push it. Instead, Museum Hours just lets you do what you want with its ideas, as O’Hara and Sommer connect so naturally and easily that they barely seem to be acting at all. They look at art. We look at them. Art is where you see it.

Advertisement

Exclusive content and events straight to your inbox

Subscribe to our Newsletter

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

By signing up, I agree to receive emails from Now Toronto and to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.

Recently Posted