X
  • 1994
  • R
  • Evergreen Entertainment
  • 1 h 31 m
  • 1994
  • R
  • Evergreen Entertainment
  • 1 h 31 m

Summary This darkly humorous film explores the personal psychic landscape of two lonely New Yorkers. Jackie and Michael are coworkers at a large law firm, who decide to meet at Jackie's for dinner one night. As this 'first date' plays out, the audience is guided through a mental minefield of disappointment, desolation, and desperation. Their con...

Directed By: Tom Noonan

Written By: Tom Noonan

  • 1994
  • R
  • Evergreen Entertainment
  • 1 h 31 m
  • 1994
  • R
  • Evergreen Entertainment
  • 1 h 31 m

What Happened Was...

Metascore Generally Favorable Based on 24 Critic Reviews
71
User Score Available after 4 ratings
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Summary This darkly humorous film explores the personal psychic landscape of two lonely New Yorkers. Jackie and Michael are coworkers at a large law firm, who decide to meet at Jackie's for dinner one night. As this 'first date' plays out, the audience is guided through a mental minefield of disappointment, desolation, and desperation. Their con...

Directed By: Tom Noonan

Written By: Tom Noonan

Where to Watch

Top Cast

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Generally Favorable Based on 24 Critic Reviews
71
88% Positive
21 Reviews
8% Mixed
2 Reviews
4% Negative
1 Review

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Generally Favorable Based on 24 Critic Reviews
71
88% Positive
21 Reviews
8% Mixed
2 Reviews
4% Negative
1 Review

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
88
A small jewel about a most common experience-a first date. Writer-director Tom Noonan also stars as a quirky, shy guy who comes over to the Manhattan loft apartment of a co-worker (Karen Sillas) for a first date. Their dance of engagement is absolutely riveting and sad. Created as a stage play, it also works on film. A true sleeper. [09 Dec 1994, p.B]
By Gene Siskel FULL REVIEW
83
A haunting, expressionistic portrait of two lonely souls who have reached out for companionship and instead found themselves on a proving ground, where they are mercilessly denuded of their protective lies and self-deception.
FULL REVIEW
78
What Happened Was … dissects the interminable hopefulness of dating. Noonan, who also wrote the script, has an ear for believable dialogue, and Sillas (Simple Men, Risk) allows every conceivable emotion to ripple across her face, which is a landscape unto itself.
FULL REVIEW
75
It not only feels like a transposed stage piece, it plays like a workshop performance that may not have found its final form. But the actors keep it lively and darkly funny, and the picture rarely feels stagey. [07 Oct 1994, p.D31]
By John Hartl FULL REVIEW
75
The movie (written and directed by Noonan), which took the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, is not as profound as the festival laurels imply. But when all is said and said, the fate of this relationship -- left hanging as the movie ends -- becomes a matter of compelling significance.
By Desson Thomson FULL REVIEW
63
Two-character movies are notoriously difficult to sustain, even when benefiting, as here, from one of those late-inning plot twists that casts the movie in a slightly different light. [09 Sep 1994, p.8D]
By Mike Clark FULL REVIEW
25
It’s hard to believe that these two people, so dissimilar in every way, would be attracted to each other in the first place. It’s even harder to listen to the drone of the numbingly unsympathetic Michael (Noonan, also the movie’s writer and director). When there are only two characters on screen, you’d better rouse concern for both so your viewer is not fatally tempted by the stop button.
FULL REVIEW

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Details

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Production Company Genre Pictures, Good Machine
Release Date Sep 9, 1994
Duration 1 h 31 m
Rating R
Genres
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Awards

Sundance Film Festival
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations
Film Independent Spirit Awards
• 2 Nominations
Chicago International Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination

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