In Read My Lips, Carla, an overqualified, unappreciated and nearly deaf employee of a property development firm, is often ridiculed by co-workers while they take credit for her best work. In time, Carla manages to get Paul – an unskilled ex-con – hired as an assistant, despite his complete lack of office experience. After Paul uses his talents to reclaim a file a co-worker has lifted from Carla’s desk, the favor is repaid as Carla and her aptitude to lip read set in motion sweet revenge against a crooked loan shark.

Read My Lips works as both an unconventional romantic drama and a thriller because the extreme care taken to develop the characters. This attention makes Carla and Paul exceptionally real — imperfect, ignoble, introverted, each with something to learn from the other.  Carla and Paul not only form an alliance, they ultimately renew themselves by ripping off unsavory characters. The film is a rare and unusually successful cinematic hybrid; a terrific suspense yarn that cleverly makes use of Carla’s disability but wisely refuses to rely on stereotypes or rely on simplistic blueprints in achieving its dramatic, mind-bending conclusion.

Read My Lips
Running Time: 119 Minutes
Language: Native French with English subtitles
Director: Jacques Audiard

Want to read more reviews about the disTHIS! Film Series? See March disTHIS Film Screening.

The disTHIS! Film Series, a project of the Disabilities Network of NYC in association with DCTV, is a monthly showcase of festival-quality independent and international short, documentary and feature films with disability themes audiences are unlikely to see elsewhere. No handkerchief necessary, no heroism required. disTHIS! is disability through a whole new lens. disTHIS film screenings  are made possible by the generous support of The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, members of the Disabilities Network of NYC, and our audiences.

View Lawrence Carter Long's Disaboom profile here.

For more information: 
Disabilities Network of NYC, http://dnnyc.net/

disTHIS! Film Series, http://disthis.org