MBunge Walking And Talking is a lot more talking than walking. It's the sort of film that some will think is the cat's meow while others will despise it like it's a child molester and both points of view will be valid. That's because while this movie is well done, what it does is so blisteringly ordinary. Just about anyone who watches it will have moments of emotional recognition for what's going on in the story and most will spend the time in between those moments plaintively waiting for the talking and walking to go anywhere.Amelia (Catherine Keener) is a single woman in New York City. She has a lifelong best friend named Laura (Anne Heche) who's now living with a boyfriend (Todd Field). Amelia doesn't have a boyfriend. She does have an ex-boyfriend named Andrew (Liev Schrieber) who hangs around like Cosmo Kramer from Seinfeld. Amelia's also got a cat dying of cancer and a video store clerk/horror movie fan (Kevin Corrigan) who wants to bone her.As soon as Laura's boyfriend proposes to her, she starts fancying other men. As soon as Amelia gets comfortable with "settling" for the video store clerk, he dumps her for saying he's ugly behind his back. Andrew has a father with Alzheimer's and a pseudo-girlfriend in California whom he wants to dump right after he has phone sex with her. Amelia feels abandoned by Laura not always being there for her and Laura can't always be there for her because she's actually gone out and gotten a life of her own.Now take all of that and coat it with 2 ½ inches of well written but mostly inconsequential blather and you've got Walking And Talking. It'll work for you if you like the performers, enjoy having a waterfall of very short scenes splash over you and appreciate examinations of humanity in utterly unexceptional circumstances. It'll feel like a potato peeler across your forehead if you want characters that are likable, need a story to have some propulsion and don't want to watch a motion picture that's less interesting than your own life.Catherine Keener does a wonderful job playing a woman you really wouldn't want to know. Anne Hech is as good playing a woman you would want to know but would have a love/hate relationship with. Liev Schreiber is okay, except for the fact that Amelia and Andrew's relationship is written as though Nicole Holofcener has never met a man, let alone dated one. Ex-lovers can certainly break up and still find a way to be friends. That way is not going to be like it is here, where Amelia treats Andrew like her gay best friend and Andrew behaves like he's her gay best friend. That's an odd way for ex-lovers to relate and requires a lot more explanation than it gets in Walking And Talking.Which is a complaint that could be levied against much of this script. While the film is already too long as 86 minutes, the story feels like significant parts of it are regularly being skipped in order to show you scenes that would normally be cut out of a film to tighten it up. None of it's bad, but you can't help thinking there's something more important you should be seeing.If you like dramas where the drama is muted, comedies where the comedy produces more knowing grins than giggles and romances where you don't particularly care if the lovers get together or not, give Walking And Talking a try. If you can take pleasure from craft for its own sake, give Walking And Talking a try. If you want a movie that doesn't remind you of the inane conversations you've had with your own friends, find something else to watch

mojojones77 Even in her first film back in 1996, Nicole Holocenfer has always been the best at conveying so much feeling, with so little.'Walking and Talking' is an impressive Nicole Holocenfer starter and possibly her best as it gets everything just right in that Nicole Holofcener way. It doesn't over due with the bonding motives drenched in the appropriate music that Nicole Holocenfer can't see the cheese in and has induced in her more recent films immensely. This first effort also spawns Nicole's signature comedy of finding the hilarity in smug, annoying and odd strangers(who we all loathe), and in the funny but horrible shallowness of her characters in which has made Nicole known for making comedic movies since then. The writing here is more raw and youthful with Nicole's feelings as a girl and a woman, maybe because of the times but this makes for more original, interesting, and entertaining dialogue and performances.'Walking and Talking' unlike Nicole's later films, also doesn't hit you over the head with the acts of one dimensional characters as each character properly goes through a vary of feelings and moods as they each go through various different situations of life, more so like real people. With this, (unfortuantely unlike her other films) she doesn't make the men in the movie side notes and props. They get a say too and convey almost as much emotion as the female characters. Nicole Holofcener's point in her movies maybe to make women the forefront of her movies and to make men the props, but I personally find it insulting and typical to do this, so it was perfect to see her first effort was true to everyone.Nicole's direction style, especially with this entire, tells us shes not afraid to make things wacky to convey a character's thoughts and emotions even in a story of real-life, and with her camera direction as well, she always makes things feel interesting to watch as characters appear on the screen and as scenes coming along with a simple pan, although things going on in the movie are average life situations. And she never pushes a scene into a more sexually or exciting realm for interest of the viewer, as she keeps scenes in the reality of what it is depicting, which is wonderful because its real. She proves to be a big fan of the fade in and fade out into and out of sequences as its used here and in her later films, but it makes more sense in 'Walking and Talking'and brings certain meaning to certain scenes as appose to 'Friends with Money' but the fade out was interesting in that movie none-the-less. This direction style with the soft, awkward acoustic music to the scenes can be also seen as influential to the indie movie scene of 2000s with it's structure, to movies like 'Juno'.This is a great 90's time capsule and even unrated as a definitive 90's movie with it's great 90's soundtrack and band references, it's geek-tom fan fair, and laid-back lifestyles of the characters so significant to generation x.This first effort years ago, shows that Nicole Holofcener gets like no other the awkwardness of relating to ageing family members and ageing in general. The feeling of being lonely, and feeling that time is passing by and being wasted having your own ironic stupid superficial ideals hold you back from being with someone who wants to fill the void and who thinks your the bell-of-the-ball, and that you don't know someone can make you happy until you give them a shot, because you can't wait forever. This is also one of the most accurate films showing the jealously shared between to friends, of one having someone in companionship, and the other having no one in freedom. This is an important,intelligent and accurate film for females but at it's core its also a life study for men and women equally.May I also add, that no wonder Nicole Holofcener has used Catherine Keener all these years.... Shes a great actress. And This is proof that Kevin Corrigan has always been amazing.

MarieGabrielle this is what audiences need to see more of. Good characterization, realistic dialog (no slap-stick cheap tricks, farce etc.) and capable actors.I have seen "Friends With Money" which was a disappointment compared to this and "Lovely and Amazing". This film succeeds because we care about the characters, Anne Heche as the therapist, trying to control her wedding, Catherine Keener as confused and disappointed single again friend. Andrew and Laura (Schreiber and Keener), Frank and Amelia,(Ann Heche and Todd Field) two couples just trying to make things work. They have to find humor in minor things. Kevin Corrigan adds humor as Keener's sometime date, who finds out he is referred to as the "ugly guy".Liev Schreiber adds a good element to the film. Keener's former boyfriend, he is there for her, even as she pursues Corrigan who works at a video store:..."Jeez look at him...I thought I could relax for once"... Keener says as she wonders why he has rejected her.This has been compared to "Sex and the City", but there really is no comparison. A one hour TV show vs. film; this film has resonance; we will remember and want to see these characters again, they are not cardboard cut-out characterizations. TV has to be more polarized, due to the medium and time limits, hence the characters are more superficial and obvious.(Could we picture Kim Catrall in this film, I don't think so). I am surprised Nicole Holfcener has not surmised this, and realized the casting mistake in "Friends with Money"; if someone has a too-TV persona, they do not necessarily translate to film. That was one of the problems with FWM.Also the performances in this film were not preceded by the personalities. Heche is believable, amusing and sympathetic. Catherine Keener is quirky, interesting and multi-layered. Liev Schreiber is funny, a good friend and we want to see more of him. Please, Ms. Holofcener, for your next film use film actors, not people who had a high "TV Q" or were married to a film celebrity for a brief period. It makes a great deal of difference, and the finished product proves this to be so. 9/10

Alan J. Jacobs I do believe that Anne Heche is a severely underrated actor. She stands out in every movie that I've seen her in, including this one. She switches from sympathetic and lovable to borderline nuts very quickly, and then switches back again. No matter what one knows about her wacky private life, she really knows how to turn into a believable and sympathetic character on screen. In fact, all the actors in this piece are quite good. Another standout is Kevin Corrigan, as the geeky clerk at a video store. The movie has good dialog, but the plot is sentimental, ending with a presumably happy wedding. It's essentially about the love between two female friends, and how it is affected when one of the friends becomes engaged. The one who is engaged (Anne Heche) becomes wrapped up in herself, and engages in behavior likely to end the engagement and the friendship. The friend (Catherine Keener) dates an inappropriate man (Kevin Corrigan) after breaking up with a man (Liev Schrieber) for an unidentifiable reason. The fiance, Todd Field, is stolid and lovable throughout, although a bit off-center, which is why Anne Heche has her doubts.See it for the actors--they were good in 1996 and they're good now.