"Language Lessons" has a very simple premise--the relationship between a Spanish language female teacher, Carino, living in Costa Rica and a wealthy, married Gay Oakland man, Adam, who meet due to his husband, Will, buying him 1,000 hours of Spanish lessons and hiring her as the teacher. Filmed with zoom calls and face time messages the production is also simple. There are only two actors in this 1 hour and 31 minutes film and they are Natalie Morales and Mark Duplass, both doing an excellent job. She also directed the film and co-wrote the script with him and his production company produced the film. (Oh, yes, his recently sold home was used for his background shots!) They provide a charm and heart that normally wouldn't work between 2 actors in a film where they not only command the screen but are the only ones in the movie.


Teaching takes a backseat after the opening shots to get into what is going on in their lives though, regrettably, very little is said about their lives in the past except they are/were Catholics. I would have liked to know more about the implied abuse, the lives and relationship of Adam and Will aside from the former having lived a heterosexual life before meeting the latter.


Without wanting to give any spoilers it is hard to get into the content of the screenplay though death, illness, tragedy, crippling grief, nurturing, confusing and comedy with language and that people can connect on the Internet in platonic ways. Humor is also provided when showing what can go wrong and/or being on zoom or face time messages.


"Language Lessons" is what used to be called a 'small, art' film. It is not going to break records at the box office but it is certainly one of the better movies being shown in movie theatres since they have been reopened.