Direction: Lili Horvath
Country: Hungary
In Lili Horvát’s uncommonly moody romantic drama, reality and fantasy intertwine in the mind of a woman in love.
The director’s sophomore feature follows Marta Vizy (Natasa Stork), a highly qualified neurosurgeon in her early forties who leaves the US, where she lives for nearly two decades, to return to her hometown Budapest. The reason for this professional downgrade is Janos Drexler (Viktor Bodó), a man she met in a conference in New Jersey, who she thinks is the right one for her. They didn’t exchange phone numbers but decided to meet one month after in the Pest end of the Budapest’s Liberty Bridge. Janos didn’t only show up to the rendezvous but also claims he never met her before when confronted with the situation.
This romantic move turned frustration develops with a few episodes - her appointments with a psychologist that puts everything she reveals in question, a short flirt with a fourth-year medical student, and her curiosity in knowing more about Janos’ life.
The film, decorously shot in 35mm, flows with a languid propulsion permeated by melancholy, only sporadically surprising in a plot that lacks that expected ingenious spin that would give the best sequence to what had been previously created. It gets lost somehow in its ambiguity and that affects the whole.
The film, once an extraordinary idea, becomes out of shape at the moment that Horvát tries to give it one. The reversion of the roles of Marta and Janos brings an emotional hollow that transforms these Preparations in an unaffecting put-on.
