I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

So much average

Pretty Good

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Jackie, a secretary in a legal firm, invites Michael, a paralegal in her office, over for a dinner date. The film follows the course of their evening as the two manage to surprise each other with hidden, unexpected twists of character.In many ways, this is not unlike Richard Linklater's "Before" trilogy, because it amounts to basically a couple in conversation for 90 minutes. The key difference, however, is that Linklater utilized some great locations. Noonan adapted the film from a stage play, and this is quite evident... it could easily be shot in one room, whether it be an apartment, a library, or pretty much anywhere.The writing is good and the acting is strong, but the film itself is just alright. It never really rises above the stage play, and it seems a shame to translate something from a play to a film without making the necessary adjustments.

I found this film emotionally wrenching but with no catharsis. Neither of its only two characters was particularly likable and yet the film permeated and enveloped in such a way as to make it imperative to care about and root for them. Both individually and as a couple.But the rooting was not without an ambivalence. The film unfolds and draws the viewer in but it never throws out a liferope with a hint of buoyancy to cling to. The man and the woman are intriguing but each of them has very evident psychological obstacles in their makeup. Maybe insurmountable obstacles.You want things to work out for them but you have to ask yourself to what end. Their lives are each severely wanting and problematical to put it mildly but there is no indication that joining forces would in any way ease the situation.Noonan never makes it easy for the viewer. It's kind of daring and exciting to realize at the end what choices he made as a writer and as a director. The characters are without any easily accessible wit or accessible charm and yet their dialogue is fascinating.Their exchanges are agonizingly awkward and yet completely engrossing. Engrossing in a very uncomforable sort of way. The discomfort was probably because it rang so raw and without any tarting up.I longed for more theatricality in the delivery of the lines. That would have provided an emotional distance and made it easier to take the film. But I have to admire Noonan for not choosing that route as a director.By going completely naturalistic, there was no barrier, nothing to shield you from the film's impact.I wish Noonan had chosen to end the film differently, though. I wish there had been more of a glimmer of hope.Although it's beyond presumptuous to discuss changes to the script, I wish that Noonan had ended the film with the Jackie character giving a different response to the Michael character's invitation to go out with him Friday night. Rather than responding that he should ask her again when they saw each other at work (accompanied by an expression on her face indicating that she had already lost complete interest in him), I wish she had instead said that she would be glad to have dinner with him if it could be a celebratory dinner. It would be conditional. That when he had finished making the preliminary arrangements to complete the credits for his law degree, she would be glad to join him for dinner. And that would be only a small indication of the kind of congratulatory blowout she would plan for him after he had gone on to pass the bar exam. And if Michael had also in turn given some reciprocal show of support to Jackie. She had no writing talent but judging from her apartment, she had creativity and a good eye. There was promise there. Promise to be encouraged.I guess I just wanted to believe that there was some small glimmer of hope that they could help rescue each other. But instead the ending was relentlessly and piercingly grim. Well worth seeing, though! The acting was brilliant, the set design, the cinematography, the music, all exceptional. And the last shot of all the buildings and all the apartment windows was very powerful carrying as it did the message that behind each window was more drama.

What Happened Was is a movie of creepy intensity that is both affecting and disturbing. Talented writer/director/actor Tom Noonan allows the viewer to be a fly on the wall for a first date that starts off awkward and painful and then veers into the uncomfortably intimate. Michael and Jackie could be anyone you work with, pass every day in the hall, and never realize what's going on in their strange inner worlds. Lonely and simultaneously starved for meaningful human companionship and afraid of it, by the end of the date Michael and Jackie reveal themselves in ways that are real and fascinating while also being scary in a way that few movies are. A must see for anyone interested in the dark recesses of the human mind.

After the first twenty minutes of this movie, I was almost ready to turn it off. My fiancee, who was watching with me, fell asleep at about that point. I couldn't imagine that the painful and uncomfortable interactions of the two main characters on their first date could turn into anything vaguely interesting.But I was very glad that I stayed with it. Both main characters aren't what they first seem to be. It's rare to have one's perception of characters change so dramatically--yet credibly--in the course of single movie. I was intrigued, entranced, beguiled.Definitely a worthwhile rental for the thinking movie buff.