Forty Shades of Blue (2005)

In the visually striking, terribly lonely character study Forty Shades of Blue, Laura (Dina Korzun) is a young Russian woman too accustomed to living with little to ask, ''Is that all there is?'' — especially when suddenly showered with muchness. As he did in his distinctive 1997 debut feature, The Delta, director Ira Sachs moves to the rhythms of his native Memphis, teasing emotional resonance out of geography. (The film won the top prize this year at Sundance.) Rip Torn blazes as Laura's lover, Alan, a famous, much-older music producer who is also the father of her little boy but pointedly not her husband (he still lunges at wine, other women, and song). It takes the arrival of Alan's estranged adult son (Darren Burrows) to rattle the disassociated practicality with which Laura navigates her sad blue heaven.