Coffee and Cigarettes. I’m more of a tea and biscuits person myself and this film did little to convince me otherwise. It was so boring! I am just thankful that I didn’t have to pay to see it.
The film is made up of short scenes revolving around people sitting round a table, smoking and drinking coffee. sound dull? It is. There were only two scenes that held my attention the whole way through. The first was with Cate Blanchett playing herself and her cousin (with a voice very much like that of sexy New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark). The other, also on the cousin theme, starred Steve Coogan; and he made himself out to be a very shallow man, it was quite funny. Other than that though it was a yawn-fest. (It was interesting to note that in the scene with Steve Coogan and some other English man, they drank tea not coffee).
The other scenes may be slightly amusing if watched by themselves but strung together they are just tedious. What is worse is the themes and topics of conversation tend to repeat (how many times one of them says “Coffee and cigarettes? That’s not a very healthy lunch.” I don’t care to know). This makes it feel like you are watching the whole thing twice. Once is quite enough thank you.
There will be some people that will say that it’s an arty film and I am a philistine that doesn’t understand the struggle within each character, the symbolism of the coffee and the beauty of their situation. Who cares, there are good are films and there are crappy ones. I know which category this belongs in.
Pigalina's Palace 