James Eckhart knows that his new film requires a commitment. The movie, “To Be Friends,” which he wrote and directed, is an hour and a half of deep dialogue between a man and a woman who take a weekend getaway together.
“The first 10 minutes is almost asking the audience to acclimate to where we’re going, which is not exactly where they’ve gone before,” he says.
And though those first 10 minutes may be dense with intellectual musings that require express contemplation, as the viewers come to know these characters and the parameters of their friendship, the philosophical works through to the poetic and deeply emotional.
“This is a personal story,” says Eckhart, “I’m a middle-aged man who has known a few good relationships in my life and I’ve always kind of wondered how it is that you can feel so connected to somebody, and yet at the same time that this isn’t necessarily the relationship that you see for yourself.”
