A dancer meets a sign language interpreter in the Lithuanian romance “Slow,” screening May 10-16 at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago. Like the couple it’s about, “Slow” acknowledges and, to some degree, gives in to expectations set by a world overloaded with conformist-minded romcoms and conventional relationship blueprints. But it’s worth seeing. And for a weeklong run starting Friday at the Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago audiences can see for themselves.
There’s a warmth and something of a spark between the two adults. They share a performer’s expressivity in their respective mediums. “Slow” returns periodically to scenes of Dovydas alone, on camera, providing eloquent sign language translation for pop song lyrics; throughout the film, Elena rehearses in the studio with two fellow dancers, as they prepare a piece for full production.
At its best, “Slow” pays intimate attention to the way these two deal, humanely, sometimes testily, with their circumstances. Shooting on mellow 16-millimeter film, director Kavtaradze does very well by both key performers. Greta Grineviciute gives Elena an easygoing combination of solidity and freedom, while Kestutis Cicenas lends Dovydas the affable, somewhat guarded air of a man in limbo.