The film Me and You and Everyone We Know is an illustration of how ambiguous or awkward communication practices can mislead and confuse both the individual and groups of people about the motives, validity, and/or reality behind their interactions with the people around them, and demonstrates how this interferes with a human’s basic need for truth, affirmation, and a meaningful place. The writer was able to accomplish this with a complex plot. The situations that the main characters were going through were accented by the stories of the smaller characters such as Sylvie and Peter, Rebecca and Heather, Robbie and Nancy, etc.
The way these side-stories were executed also had a great deal of importance to the successful transmission of the writer’s point. For instance, Sylvie answers the door for Richard who is panicking over Robbie’s whereabouts. She cuts him off and repeats her greeting in order to communicate properly. Sylvie is the only character that communicates clearly and concisely, almost without any hesitation or break in confidence. Continuing with this example, Sylvie answers Richard’s question, but just as he is about to leave, she says, “If you didn’t know me, would you really think I was this tall.” This is perfect example of how all the different aspects of a film, as in the direction, image, writing, etc., all tie together to amplify the writer’s feelings toward relationships. The line itself directly comments on how may know nothing about the people you “know”, let alone people you don’t know well or at all. The scene was shot at a very interesting style of doorway. Sylvie answers via a porthole that hides the rest of her; the person at the door has no way of knowing what is on the other side of that door. This can be tied directly to any situation with any other character. It applies to Robbie and Nancy’s blind communication via the Internet, the indirect communication between Richard’s co-worker and Rebecca and Heather, etc. Sylvie’s scrapbooks are incredibly significant of the idea of a person’s need for a place in the world. This can tie in with the Bird Picture, which symbolizes Richard’s sense of place and belonging.
The last point that needs to be reinforced is the satisfaction of knowing the truth. A very simplistic demonstration of this aspect of the film comes with the use of a “ping” noise that Robbie hears often. He wants to know what it is, but people give him answers that are worth more as a snub more than actual fact. At the end, Robbie finds a man tapping a quarter on a signpost. To signify that Robbie has obtained the truth, his face literally lights up. These examples, along with many others, support the point that communication is a much more difficult venture than people realize and that both trust and are difficult things to obtain.