Brilliant and touching

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

It's been a long time since I've seen Al Pacino in a different role from his usual "cop/mobster/lawyer" fare. Take Francis from "Scarecrow", one of my favorite Pacino roles, add 25 years and a passion for literature, and you've got a struggling artist, another dreamer waiting for life to happen.Ideas on identity, art, time, love, sometimes with an absurdist bitter-sweet touch, are explored. As I watched, it reminded me of Orwell's "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" and Luigi Pirandello's "One, No one and One Hundred Thousand". The writing and acting are excellent. It's performances like this that cement Pacino's status as one of the world's greatest actors.

I never was a fan of The Godfather... I like Scarface, but there Al is somehow proving himself to everybody, proving that he is The best actor living..... I was simply amazed by him in Insomnia, i made it my number 2 best movie, after The usual suspects, not only cause the incredible script, location and simplicity, but because Pacino played a guy, who hasn't slept in a week and tries to think str8, because Robin Williams is AS good as Pacino, and that is the first movie i actually enjoyed watching him, the first time i saw how brilliant he is... Watching Chinese Coffee i honestly believed that Insomnia sucked ass, that Scarface wasn't good enough... 1 room, 2 incredible actors, a breathtaking, sublime, PERFECT script and absolutely NO special effects... Pacino here is better than ever! i honestly believed everything that he said and i was completely blown away by his story, by his problems...Orbach is also amazing, but i think in some moments he's pushing HIS envelope to look full of apathy and that drove me back...but the rest of the movie he is on Pacino's level and that u all know is not easy... I simply cannot say how good it is, u have to see it and u'll believe it.

A Broadway play turned into a film starring Al Pacino and Jerry Orbach. Think of this script as sort of a "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf" between two heterosexual men. In the span of two hours (with flashbacks) layer after layer of their relatively short friendship is peeled away to raw feelings and pseudo-honest expressions until a few truths may have been reached. My only problem with it is in the style of the dialog – much of the time feeling the scripts are invisible but right in front of them. The timing is too "ready" and snappy, the comebacks polished, the exchanges sculpted with care. Had it (they) been relaxed, awkward, slow to respond, overly fast to respond, etc., I could've believed it. As it is, I never lost awareness this was a staged play.

9/14 9:00 am CHINESE COFFEE (*****)Unlike most films of plays that fail to break free of stagy theatrics, this film draws its strength from a wonderful script and an intimate tone of Off-Off-Broadway theatre. The combination of Al Pacino and Jerry Orbach together for a solid hour and a half could not be more special. Susan Floyd is also wonderful as Pacino's bohemian love. Painter, long time friend of Pacino and "Before Night Falls" director, Julian Schnabel, introduced the film on behalf of Pacino, who had to return to L.A. to shoot a movie.