The movie lives up to its press. I was very impressed. I particularly liked the
setup. The story is ostensibly about a sixteen year old spawned
in Hell and determined to bring everyone in her life there for
company. Unbelievably rotten shit of a kid, with only her
detached appreciation of this fact to recommend her.
But the story is actually centered on her
brother, Bill (Martin Donovan) and Lucia (Lisa Kudrow), the
sister of Bill's dead lover and how they change throughout this
time. Bill is put through hell and back--he loses his lover, gets
accused of molesting a student, has $10,000 stolen, is betrayed
time and again, and has to deal with Lucia berating him all the
while for continuing to trust the scavengers that have invaded
his life.
Lucia is, possibly, the loneliest and
unhappiest woman I've seen portrayed in quite some time. And yet
Kudrow keeps her funny and never quite pathetic.
The theme that returns throughout is sex--not
so much the doing of it, but the *why* of it, the meaning of it,
the importance of it.
Near the end, Lyle Lovette (as Lucia's wannabe
boyfriend and actual sheriff) gives a theory about sex that was
wonderful, but wrong. Sex as a means of focusing your loved one's
attention on you is a great theory, but demonstrably inaccurate.
If anything, this focus is the purpose rather
of love, attachment, that whatever it is that makes two people
hook up and stay together. Of course, the mere act of living
together, having kids, or sleeping in the same bed doesn't do it
either, as is evident by the number of marriages that are running
solely on inertia. So what makes that focus happen--and stay? I
don't think it's sex alone. But kudos to the writer for defining
"focus of attention" as a critical element of a
relationship. Even if he got the reason for it wrong.
I'd never heard of Martin Donovan before, and
he was simply wonderful. His expression, at the end, when he
opens up her bag to find the ashes, brought tears to my eyes. I
thought Johnny Galecki was way too far over the top and was
unconvinced by Bill's boyfriend. But they were still much better
than many performances I've seen this year. Kudrow and Ricci have
been getting justifiable praise--Kudrow in particular is quite
possibly going to nab a nomination, and deservedly so.
Worth far more than a look. Run out and rent
immediately.
