Last month (Sep, 2001) the Atlantic Monthly ran an article addressing the new trend of slow and hyper-stylized novels masquerading as self-proclaimed "literary novels." If the article had instead focused on plotless movies that aspire to be "films" this would have been a prime example. The only thing that kept me from voting this a 1 was the uniformly excellent cast and a the wonderful character of a zesty blind woman (played by Cameron Diaz) and a charming dwarf (an actor I'm not familiar with).
The problem with this self-consciously styled "women's art movie" is that it is neither particularly artistic nor particularly insightful about women (although there have been many insightful films done about women by male directors, this is not one of them). The film flirts with a trendy collage format that flickers between different points in time and threads them together by the forced conceit of a suicidal brunette who acts as a time marker. The compelling idea of interlaced stories is here made merely distracting--there are at least 5 main characters (I'm probably missing somebody), its just too hard to keep track of their relationships let alone figure out how their stories are interrelated.
The connections are hardly meaningful anyways-- example-- Cameron Diaz is the blind pianist alluded to in a brief anecdote of Calista Flockheart's to her dying lover in one story of the movie. Cameron Diaz is also tutoring the daughter of the man who was a one night stand for Holly Hunter in yet another story.
The movies main offense is in trying so hard to be "smart" that it is forgets to be entertaining. The editing is AWFUL. Apparently whoever was doing the final cut was taught that focusing on a character spacing out for minutes at a time would prod viewers to imagine what the characters were really thinking. I found myself wondering what the DIRECTOR was thinking. This is truly the stuff bad literature is made of. Skip it. If you enjoy the idea of overlapping stories I suggest the Blue, White and Red series (Blue with Juliette Binoche is especially fine and Red is thought provoking). For a B-grade shmaltzy movie that is still infinately more enjoyable than "things you can tell by looking at her" try Playing By Heart. At least the Angelina Jolie vignette is consistently interesting. For a more sincere "womens movie" try steel magnolias, "fried green tomatos," or "Angelina's Line."
The problem with this self-consciously styled "women's art movie" is that it is neither particularly artistic nor particularly insightful about women (although there have been many insightful films done about women by male directors, this is not one of them). The film flirts with a trendy collage format that flickers between different points in time and threads them together by the forced conceit of a suicidal brunette who acts as a time marker. The compelling idea of interlaced stories is here made merely distracting--there are at least 5 main characters (I'm probably missing somebody), its just too hard to keep track of their relationships let alone figure out how their stories are interrelated.
The connections are hardly meaningful anyways-- example-- Cameron Diaz is the blind pianist alluded to in a brief anecdote of Calista Flockheart's to her dying lover in one story of the movie. Cameron Diaz is also tutoring the daughter of the man who was a one night stand for Holly Hunter in yet another story.
The movies main offense is in trying so hard to be "smart" that it is forgets to be entertaining. The editing is AWFUL. Apparently whoever was doing the final cut was taught that focusing on a character spacing out for minutes at a time would prod viewers to imagine what the characters were really thinking. I found myself wondering what the DIRECTOR was thinking. This is truly the stuff bad literature is made of. Skip it. If you enjoy the idea of overlapping stories I suggest the Blue, White and Red series (Blue with Juliette Binoche is especially fine and Red is thought provoking). For a B-grade shmaltzy movie that is still infinately more enjoyable than "things you can tell by looking at her" try Playing By Heart. At least the Angelina Jolie vignette is consistently interesting. For a more sincere "womens movie" try steel magnolias, "fried green tomatos," or "Angelina's Line."