‘What Happened Was...’ (NR)

"What Happened Was . . . ," rather like "My Dinner With Andre," is an extended verbal encounter between two characters in search of a movie. When legal secretary Jackie (Karen Sillas) invites fellow employee and paralegal Michael (Tom Noonan) to her Manhattan apartment for dinner, their conversation -- full of verbal twists and turns -- is the sole "action" of the film.

As with many such wine-sipping dialogues, the chatter begins with tentative, clumsy and amusing repartee: "Is that a good book?" Karen replies when Michael speaks reverently of the Iliad. "I haven't read that." Then the evening becomes increasingly revelatory as we discover more about these people. Michael, a balding, sweet-faced science buff who can explain microwave ovens and in camera sessions, dropped out of law school and is secretly writing a book intended to expose the capitalistic corruptions of the justice system. Karen, a sweet but assertive soul, who likes the music of Air Supply and Deep Purple, writes strange children's fiction. Other secrets emerge: She's the one who initiated this date. ("I watch you at work," she confesses.) Michael seems less interested. You wonder -- with interest -- where this thing is going.

The answer becomes clear when Karen reads one of her stories, a bizarre, postmodern Grimm's Tale called "What Happened Was . . . " The dramatic mood shifts rapidly from major chords to minor. Suddenly -- as Karen and Michael learn the truth about each other -- everything you thought you knew about them is rendered null and void. 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. It may take an extended dinner date with someone special to figure it out.