Sometimes the sparkle goes out of a romance.  People who have been married for years and still love each other can drift apart.  It's not that someone has been wronged, just that with time the fires cool.  And that brings the possibility of infidelity.

That is what happens in Nina Takes a Lover.  Nina (Laura San Giacomo) is being interviewed by a reporter (Michael O'Keefe) for an article he is doing on is marriage and extramarital affairs.  She relates to this journalist how she was drifting apart from her husband.  They don't talk much, he is often away on business, and he may be having an affair.  He phones one day to let her know that he'll be out of town for three weeks.    She finds that her best friend (who is never named in the film, played by Cristi Conaway) is having an affair, and the next day Nina eats lunch in the park.  In a not so subtle way she attracts the attention of a man (also unnamed  acted by Paul Rhys) who also lunches there.  Soon they start talking, and three days later, after she doesn't show up at the park because of rain, he tracks her to the shoe shop where she works. "I couldn't go two days without being with you!" He exclaims.  When she goes to get some shoes from the back (in one of the most under stocked shoe stores in the western hemisphere,) he follows and seduces her while they are both on a ladder.

They spend a lot of time together, mainly in his studio.  He is a photographer, and also married, but neither of them talks about their spouses much.  Things are going very well, until their time starts to run out.  Three weeks is not a lot of time, but before Nina's husband to due to return, the pair have to become honest with each other.  And honesty isn't always the best thing in a whirlwind romance.

This film wasn't bad, but it was one of those films that I just couldn't get into.  While I could commiserate with Nina's boredom and anger that her husband was away so often, I didn't think that was motivation enough for her to have an affair.

Another problem I had was that the framing sequence of being interviewed by a reporter didn't worked as well as it should have.  I suppose the writer used this device so that Nina could have voiceovers describing her feelings, but the reporter came across more as an analyst than a journalist.

The movie was filled with pithy maxims that sound deep but aren't.  "The better you get to know some one, the harder it is to listen" and other such adages filled the movie.

Between Nina's friend's affair and her own, this movie came across like a drawn out episode of Sex and the City, but without the comedy (or nudity.)  There are a couple of funny scenes, all of them involving the friend's lover, Fisher Stevens, but they are few and far between.  Not nearly enough to warrant the "romantic comedy" description that is on the back cover.

There is an incident that occurs ¾ of the way through the film that does make it much more interesting, but this event was too little too late to make the film a real quality piece of work.  If you do watch it, you should make sure you view the whole thing.
 

The film was presented in Dolby Surround Sound in English with English and French subtitles.  The sound was about average, maybe a little less.  The soundtrack didn't feel full.  The swelling music during some of the love making scenes was thin and reedy.  There was little directionality.   On the positive side, the dialog was clear and easy to understand, and there was no noticeable hiss or other extraneous noise.

Video:

The transfer for this film was appropriate.  The 1.85:1 anamorphic picture was soft, and had a good share of mosquito noise.  The colors were a little dulled but only to a small degree.   None of these defects were distracting or major, and the film looked acceptable.

The Extras:

This is a bare bones disc with trailers for a couple other films, but not one to the featured movie.

Final Thoughts:

Nina Takes a Lover tried, but didn't quite make the grade.  While the acting was good, the story just didn't strike a cord with me.  I just couldn't bring myself to get interested in the characters predicaments.  The revelation in the latter part of the show did pique my interest, but only slightly.  When the movie was over I had a "that was it" feeling, hoping that there would have been more.  Rent it.