|
 NEW YORK (AP) - No doubt about it: "The Girl in the Cafe" is the best romantic comedy set at a G-8 summit you're ever likely to see. But it's more than that. Besides packing a weighty message — significant reduction in global poverty and infant mortality is now within the grasp of world leaders — this lovely film can hold its own against any love story as it depicts a mismatched couple struggling to connect.
The winsome, enigmatic girl, Gina, is played by Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald, and makes an ideally unexpected soul mate for Lawrence, the lonely, middle-aged British bureaucrat played to perfection by Bill Nighy ("Love Actually" and the Peabody Award-winning BBC miniseries "State of Play").
Exploring matters of the heart, "The Girl in the Cafe" (which premieres 8 p.m. EDT Saturday on HBO) has a timeless flavor engagingly at odds with the urgency of its mission. It is pegged to an event it dramatizes in its own heroic terms that will take place for real on July 6 — the leaders of the world's richest and most powerful countries convene in Scotland for the Group of Eight summit.
|