Given that the opening shot shows the heroine on the toilet, what a nice surprise to find that this is a pure love story, told with elegance and simplicity on a low budget.
Marin Ireland (“Homeland”) plays a nameless agoraphobic who hasn’t left her Manhattan apartment in months. For almost the first half-hour, Ireland is the film’s sole focus, and director Noah Buschel depicts the shut-in lifestyle as both weirdly appealing (takeout, pajamas all day, books in bed and old movies on TV) and bitterly lonely.
The opening turns out to be foreshadowing; the woman’s toilet overflows in a big way and she must call a plumber. He turns out to be a puppyish young fellow (Paul Sparks of “Boardwalk Empire”) who plays the saxophone and rarely takes off his cap. Despite her attraction, the woman can’t bear going out with him, so she invites him for dinner. They dance to an old record after the meal, and the camera pulls back to reveal the set. Then it moves slowly back in as they kiss.
Buschel breaks up the staginess with things like that dance, as well as scenes of the lovers in bed, lit off-and-on by the neon light outside the window. Ireland and Sparks are charming, as is the movie’s conviction that two kind souls finding each other is drama enough.