NOVEMBER
Directed & Edited by: Greg Harrison.
Produced by: Danielle Renfrew, Gary Winick & Jake Abraham.
Written by: Benjamin Brand.
Director of Photography: Nancy Schreiber.
Music by: Lew Baldwin.
Released by: Sony Pictures Classics.
Country of Origin: USA. 89 min. Rated: R.
With: Courteney Cox Arquette, James Le Gros, Michael Ealy, Nora Dunn, Nick Offerman & Anne Archer.

Indie-vet James Le Gros stars alongside former Friend Courteney Cox Arquette in director Greg Harrison's attempt at the ubiquitous psychological thriller. On the night of November 7, Sophie (Arquette), a photography instructor, and her boyfriend Hugh (Le Gros) stop at a local convenience store; she’s still hungry after having Chinese for dinner. Hugh reluctantly goes in while Sophie waits in the car listening to the radio. An armed robber soon enters the store, shoots the workers and demands that Hugh turn over his wallet, which he has left at home. After hearing gun shots, Sophie runs in right after Hugh is shot at point-blank range.

The film fast-forwards to what appears to be the present day. Sophie walks through the lobby of a building towards an elevator bank. The elevators aren't working, so she's forced to take the stairs, which lead to the office of a psychiatrist (Nora Dunn). This particular sequence is played out in three different scenarios entitled "Denial," "Despair" and "Acceptance." The audience is lead to believe these are the three stages Sophie must transcend in order to overcome her grief, but we're thrown for a loop when a photo of her car parked outside of the convenience store shows up in the slide projector as she teaches class.

More mysterious events occur as Sophie tries to sort out what exactly happened that night, and come to grips with Hugh's murder and her guilt over an affair with a coworker. November's non-linear plot unfolds via somber flashbacks, all swathed in washed-out tones of blue and sepia. So, yes, it's very artsy, and it's not immediately clear whether Sophie is playing out various scenes of the same incident, or if the entire incident is a dream inside her head. (She also suffers from excruciating headaches, so it could all be her subconscious.)

The film does make sense, however, once all the fragments are joined together, but that still doesn't make you feel like you actually get anything out of it. This may be most attributable to the low-key dialogue and acting. November could possibly have been the next Memento, wherein the audience is compelled to follow the lead character's steps toward discovery. But where Guy Pearce exuded raw intensity and his supporting cast, namely Joe Pantoliano, added to the intrigue, November's ensemble really has nothing to say - or do - other than walk around sullenly in shades of gray. Tanya Chesterfield
July 22, 2005