Sunday (1997) – Nostalgia Central

On a cold Sunday morning in a shabby section of Queens, New York, some residents wake up in a shelter for homeless men.

With a Sunday to fill and no resources except their feet, the men scatter to various points in New York City. One goes into the subway to sing karaoke opera for tips. Another sits on a bench, an umbrella held against the snow.

The camera focuses on a balding, short, tubby man in his late 40s, better-dressed than the others (British actor David Suchet, here with a faultless American accent).

You wouldn’t know to look at him that he lives in a shelter, but you would know by looking at him that his heart is wounded in some primary way.

He responds to the greeting of a middle-aged woman (Lisa Harrow) carrying a large and bedraggled plant. She says, in a British accent, that her name is Madeleine.

She calls him Matthew and knows him as a film director for whom she once worked in London. She is an actress at an age where it can be a long time between engagements.

The man blinks and decides to accept the identity Madeleine imposes on him (though we later learn that his name, for what it’s worth, is Oliver, and that he is a fired IBM accountant, fallen on hard times).

At some point, an unvocalised acknowledgement passes between Madeleine and Oliver that he is not a film director, but they continue to act as though he were the Matthew the woman once knew.

Why this man and woman continue with their misunderstanding is not in question. It is abundantly clear that Oliver/Matthew is lonely and Madeleine is even more lonely in a strange marriage. Her husband, Ben (Larry Pine), is used to his wife bringing strange men home and then upstairs, while he goes to the basement and transmits 30-foot-long faxes to his bedroom.

Ultimately, the characters are trying so hard to live lives that are not their own that a happy ending is not possible. Their desperation and isolation run far too deep.

The movie won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Film and Best Screenplay at the Sundance Festival.

Oliver/Matthew Delacorta
David Suchet
Madeleine Vesey
Lisa Harrow
Ray
Jared Harris
Ben Vesey
Larry Pine
Selwyn
Willis Burks
David
Kevin Thigpen
Abram
Bahman Soltani
Andy
Arnold Barkus
Jimmy Broadway
Himself
Chen Tsun Kit
Himself
Sam
Henry Hayward
Suky Vesey
Yeon Joo Kim
Joe Subalowsky
Joseph Sirola
Judy
Fran Capo
Johnny O
Spencer Patterson

Director
Jonathan Nossiter