Film: The Girl in the Cafe

Why were you in prison?

I hurt a man.

Why did you hurt a man?

I hurt a man because he hurt a child. He killed a child.

Was it your child?

Does it matter whose child it was?

These paraphrased memorable lines are from a 2005 film titled "The Girl in the Cafe," an unrated film directed by David Yates and featuring subtle performances by Bill Nighy (Lawrence) and Kelly Macdonald (Gina).

The film has got it all: comedy, romance, politics, Iceland (Bjork!), the discussion of social issues and a character that breaks from the norm and stands up for her beliefs while everyone else sits mute. I applaud that quality in a person, and I applaud it in Gina when she finds herself hobnobbing with dignitaries at a G8 Summit conference in Iceland after a chance conversation with Lawrence, a high-level bureaucrat, at a cafe in London.

Lawrence and Gina both prove to be socially inept. But that social ineptitude doesn't keep the desperately lonely and overworked Lawrence from sticking his neck out and asking the lovely (and younger) Gina on a series of dates. By the third or fourth date, they're off to Iceland with Lawrence's coworkers and their wives. While there, Lawrence finds out a whole lot more about quiet Gina - and himself.