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BREAKDOWN OF 5 MOVIE CLIPS BELOW

The following 5 excerpts are from the movie Last Night.

Joanna (Keira Knightley) is married to Michael (Sam Worthington) but bumps into her ex-boyfriend, Alex (Guillaume Canet), who is from Paris and lives in New York. He invites her for drinks to catch up, as they have not seen one another in years. Their previous relationship started during a break she had with Michael.

Alex knows about Michael, but Michael does not know about Alex. Thus, the husband has no idea what happened behind the scenes during their break. The married couple is going through a rough patch; Joanna previously suspected Michael of cheating on one of his work trips, which sets the scene for the following clips.

After she agrees to go for drinks, this is what the scene shows:

1) When a girl accepts an invite for drinks, especially with an ex-lover, she entertains the idea of cheating consciously or unconsciously.

2) By examining the body language of both characters, Alex clearly communicates his liking of Joanna, leaning in when she leans back. She is in control of the interaction.

3) She is throwing some bait at him:

- "I think I will you into my life if I think about you too long, you pick up on it."

- "I always think about you when things are going well."

She knows when to stop, not give him too much information, and not make it a slam dunk for him, but at the same time, the little respect she has left for her husband holds her back from it as she realises what it is turning into.

4) Outside of his body language, he chooses to play dumb:

- "Were you thinking about me?" Although I can see why he does that in this context, it can easily be construed as a lack of confidence in assuming the positive. A light-hearted "hard not to see it coming" would show more confidence.

5) Bold move from Alex through a temperature check with plausible deniability in asking her to go to his room once he realises there is an opening. However, he fails the silence test, where the first one who speaks after the offer is made loses. Even though the "just kidding" is weak, he comes up with a valid excuse as to why he can't do it anyway, as he is meeting his publisher for dinner and invites her along the way.

6) She initially declines because she finds it inappropriate; however, what he does well is that he gives her the proper excuse to tell herself why she must do it. Whenever you provide an explanation, not out of a shit test, but to back an offer, you are solving the narrative of what she will tell herself for doing something. She eventually agrees without really agreeing overtly by saying: "Michael is out of town". The ambiguity is a door opening, which Alex took action in by confirming they are going for dinner with him and not letting her the choice to talk herself out of it. She smiles at the end, realising what she is involving herself in.

Here, Alex and his publisher discuss Alex's former love and how he prefers this one.

There are a few golden nuggets in that scene to help you understand the dynamic behind the lure of cheating.

1) The Honeymoon period: "You have been with her less than 100 days." In relationships, the start is often the most memorable, when genuine desire trumps the eventual boredom of every couple's logistical and infrastructure challenges.

2) "It is the years you can't undo"—Even though the marriage can be on the rocks, a woman still acknowledges the past and her history with her husband. Women's ability to dismiss the past is often discussed when it comes to a recently broken-up relationship or their bodies. The mistake for Alex should he wish to help Joanna cheat on her husband would be to try to compete with Michael on the meaning of the marriage to Joanna. It is better to focus on the NOW, using their history to delve into the unclosed loop of the "What If" to make her go back in time by sleeping with him. This contrasts with the current moment when she is unsatisfied with her husband.

3) speaking from experience, the publisher tells him to "keep it as it is". The illusion of the "what if" can intoxicate Joanna and Michael. Because it is an illusion, a narrative we tell ourselves, that makes it hard for the protagonists to move on. Enjoying the flirting should be the limit. People will kill a good relationship because of its natural turbulences. The prospect of a brighter future based on the allure of the NOW will yield worse outcomes for both who fooled themselves into thinking it meant more than it actually does.

Joanna plays along by returning to Alex's hotel room before they go to the rooftop.

She returns to their history to relive these memories, as she wants to escape her situation mentally. Alex's presence is the right gateway. Alex follows up on the premise introduced by Joanna.

He eventually takes the lead as he understands the invitation she indirectly offers by willingly entertaining their past. In this situation, you can't rely solely on words; the body needs to speak, which better indicates the genuine character of the words and their underlying purpose.

They eventually broke the tension building, and they operated on one another.

They are now back in Alex's Hotel room, where she discusses her worries about Michael's (the husband's) potential infidelity.

Here, you could read it as she is prepping herself for cheating. She is speaking out loud about the situation he must currently be in with his co-worker that night. What Alex does right is that he listens. He does not chime in and give his two cents on the situation, as people are more convinced of a situation through their own internal dialogue than through a party with a vested interest in you believing something.

However, when he tries to direct the conversation to her being worried and confirming it, she dodges it. She uses their situation as a reminder of what she is doing, which is not good because it will create defence mechanisms for why she should not do what she is doing.

She then switches the conversation to the randomness of life and uses that to qualify Alex's interest in her. In Alex validating how much he would pursue her had they not bumped randomly into one another, he reassures her that she matters a lot in her life. Although it can feel good from Alex's perspective to be open about his true feelings, it kills the tension as there is more certainty. The openness is excellent for confirming their bond, but it raises the stakes even higher for the woman to sleep with him when she is in a state of doubt. A married woman will cheat when she has already decided it is over. This is not the case here. She is in the rocky part, requiring more subtlety and ambiguity. Now, she has all the confirmation she needs.

When she opens up about her feelings, she uses this to release the emotional turmoil she is experiencing. When Alex starts escalating, she eventually turns him down. Her guilt can explain this, and she gets the validation she needs from the meaning behind this random encounter with an Old Love.

She clearly still has feelings for Alex, and his confirming the fact he shares the same, provided they have sex, will create an emotional burden much more significant than if she has sex with a random; therefore, it is harder for her to self-rationalise once she is back with her husband from his work trip.

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