She's So LovelyRating:
Release Date: 02 September, 2003 Retail Price: $9.99 OUR Price: $8.99 You SAVE: $1.00! Cast: Complete Cast (17 total) |
She's So Lovely Reviews
"Love is so difficult": a crazy couple's romance
This movie is hopelessly out of step with the times - evoking one of the 60's European cinema's themes of questioning the bourgeoisie lifestyle. It's a fascinating, irrational celebration of passion, even if these feelings have destructive consequences and involve unquestionably insane, violent, socially dysfuntional behavior. Taking an unflinching look at urban bar-flies who live in a hotel worthy for crack addicts, the subversive film is emotionally messy, ambalivalent in its social values, theatrical but gritty, deeply romantic but totally debauched.
The three main characters are repellent, but not nauseating, because they have such flair, are darkly funny and display touching humanity. The actors playing them (Robin Wright Penn, Sean Penn and John Travolta) go not for realism or the usual Hollywood character arc, but for what they see as artistic "truth" in any given scene. Whatever. Oops, I mean, all three are outstanding.
Robin Wright Penn is, at the beginning, pregnant and smokes and drinks, looks like she shoots up heroin, and constantly trips over her high heels all over the sidewalk. It seems to be raining all the time, too. She walks and talks like a street hooker in the old Times Square. Even with all this, she, to me, truly is so lovely and heartbreakingly tragic, beautiful and not quite right in the head and bad news.
This film has that oh-so hip mid-90's indy Miramax flavor. (Put it along something experimental like Leaving Las Vegas from a couple of years before and it's not really that weird.) As you can read anywhere else, this script is by the late, some say great, American film rebel John Cassavetes (hence the theme mentioned above and the ever-present raw feelings) and was directed by his son, Nick. There's a strong sense of mise-en-scene, and for such a wacky story, it's well-paced, lean and taut, and Cheese Doodles leave an orange stain on your fingers. But I digress. I must have been channelling Eddie Quinn, Mr. Penn's character.
Check out Penn's acting genius in this cheerfully deranged flick. Like several of his verbal riffs: he speculates on his wife's clairvoyant abilities and goes off on, "Can you type 170 words a minute? Can you sew? Can you dance? What can you do?" and his rather elaborate drink order a little while later before he goes on about seven women controlling the world at their computers. This stuff has to be seen and heard to be believed.
In fact, by watching the DVD's extra feature, An Actor's Look at Cassavetes, a sit-down with the Penns and Mr. Travolta, this movie could be seen, to a certain extent, as the Penns' acting workshop - like, say Hurly Burly. An opportunity within the confines of the Hollywood structure to exercise acting chops for all involved, including the guy from the Sopranos, James Gandolfini, as the alcoholic rapist neighbor, as well as Harry Dean Stanton and Gena Rowlands. In the discussion, Robin finishes Sean's spoken ideas and I instantly comprehend their palpable chemistry on screen.
John Travolta, back in the day, is at the top of his game in the movie's second half as the maybe-gangster guy who snatched the lady out of the gutter. He has that Pulp Fiction, Get Shorty-era cool, magic charm going on here, both witty and goofy. Watch for these fun, showy hand gestures he does.
The music on the sound track is suitably bizarre enough. There's a big band standard-sounding opening by the most idiosyncratic Bjork and slightly mesmerizing, creepy songs by Grace Jones.
I could extend this essay, but I've covered my main points. If you want to know the plot, watch the movie or read some other review.
Not Real but Really Good
First let me just say that all of you who only gave this movie 2 or 3 stars just because of the ending are a little silly. If you thought the movie was good but chose to dislike it because the character didn't do what you would have done in this situation are SILLY...its a MOVIE. This movie is rich in it's uniqness and characters. It's story of love gone completely blind..so blind that any thing goes. Even though none of us would take our emotions as far as the characters in this movie did,,its fun to imagine,, "what if". Sean Penn plays very well in this roll. 3 Words I would use to describe this movie; Gritty, Heartbreaking, & Raw. A Must See !! : )
More Customer Reviews (12 total)
You like She's So Lovely?
|
