I just saw this movie last night off Showtime, and while I can commend the performances of the actors, all of whom I've admired their work over the years, I'm on the fence on this movie. It's basically a glorified soap opera, perhaps along the lines of a lot of Euro-films- especially French films..?? Annette Bening stars in what I see is actually based on the true story of a woman who meets a man with a striking resemblance to her late husband (Ed Harris). In the meantime, her neighbor (Robin Williams, in what I'm guessing was one of a handful of his last films-??) has a thing for her, but she's not into him. This has got to be the closest thing to a soap opera I've ever seen Williams in I must say. This movie really could've just been some Lifetime TV movie, again had it not been for the performances of it's stars. Amy Brenneman co-stars.

Nikki Lostrom (Annette Bening) is devastated by loss of her husband Garret Mathis (Ed Harris). Summer (Jess Weixler) is their daughter. It's 5 years later. She stages open houses. Roger Stillman (Robin Williams) is her neighbor and friend. She starts stalking and then dating college professor Tom Young (Ed Harris) who looks exactly like his dead husband. She hides his resemblance from everyone. He's still friends with his ex Ann (Amy Brenneman).Arie Posin sets up an interesting premise. I wish he had taken more chances. The movie never really raises the tension. This could be a highly emotional character study. Annette Bening is definitely a good enough actress to carry that out. This could be a case of obsession but it's not really. This could have been a lot of things but it never gets there. I kept thinking she could just tell him the truth. The movie could have moved to an even more compelling emotional landscape after Nikki comes clean with Tom. The movie feels stretched out as we wait for the inevitable reveal.

The Face of Love is a brilliant film with perfect performances and a fascinating screenplay about the risk and comfort of clinging to the past, using it as an excuse to evade the present and ignore the future. The great Ed Harris makes an excellent work in his dual role, bringing an appropriately warm and vulnerable attitude and achieving moments of an abundant emotional intensity. Annette Bening very solidly navigates the line between sincere love and sickly obsession, and the sadly deceased Robin Williams is absolutely credible as Bening's character neighbor and friend. Before watching The Face of Love, I thought it was going to be a generic autumnal romance, but the film ended up being something much more interesting than that, presenting us an interesting psychological perspective which is rarely examined in modern cinema. In conclusion, I liked The Face of Love very much, and I definitely recommend it, specially to those who want to see an excellent adult drama, which is lacking of clichés and full of deepness.

Maybe a better choice to have played Ed Harris' character would have been Annette's real life husband, Warren Beatty. Now that would have been something. I loved this movie. The acting was superb, and I think that Ed Harris did an awesome job. I was not bothered by his bald head. Love is love no matter what you look like on the outside. It's the feelings inside you have for each other that makes you never want to be without that other person. This movie showed how hard it was for Nikki to let go when her husband died so much so that when she met Tom who looked exactly like her deceased husband she went into this fantasy mode pretending he was still with her. I think the realization of what she had been doing when Tom found out that he looked exactly like Garrett shocked Nikki into coming to her senses and finally being able to move forward.