Girls in the City

How's that for a summary? I watched this miniseries on dvd last night, mostly because of the cast list. It's four separate stories, tied together by Stockard Channing as a psychiatrist who treats someone in each segment. The first hour is "the lesbian hour" with Kate Capshaw and Elle McPherson. The second hour has Rebecca DeMornay, Allison Janney and Glenn Headley as bickering sisters. The third hour (which, I'll admit I only watched 20 minutes of) stars Mia Farrow, Lynne Whitfield, and Linda Hamilton. The final hour centers around Stockard Channing, her secretary (played by S. Epatha Merkerson) and two patients, Camryn Manheim and Peta Wilson. Sprinkled throughout the entire program is Margo Martindale as the neighborhood coffeehouse owner. All four parts were written and directed by Lee Rose. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being high), I'd rate them as follows: Part 1, 5; Part 2, 7; Part 3 (what I saw), 2; Part 4, 8. The acting across the board is a little stiff, almost like it were a filmed play. And the writing is ultra-predictable. Yet, I still found myself engrossed (except for part 3). My favorite part of segment 4 was seeing Peta Wilson in a role about as completely opposite as one could get from her best-known role of ass-kicking, girl-spy Nikita. Other standouts are Channing, Janney, and Manheim. All in all, an interesting psychological drama.

(Note: The dvd does not have a menu or chapter search capabilities, so if you stop somewhere in the middle, make note of where you are so you can forward ahead to that point when you get back to watching.)

Don't watch this film without the volume control in your hand. The director let the actors whisper exactly half their lines, and the sound technicians did nothing about it. VERY IRRITATING. The bad writing and cliches were delivered surprisingly well most of the time, but you could see that the actors were uncomfortable with a lot of the dialogue. Some scenes were cut to fit the songs rather than having the songs fit the scenes. McPherson's hair wisps came and went at random as the multiple takes must have spanned days -- the wisp would cover an eye, disappear in the next angle, then move behind an ear as the angle returned to the original shot. It became quite comical. The four different stories were tied together by Channing as a psychiatrist. In case you missed the tedious point of each one, she recapped each story's moral into a tape recorder at the end of the episode. Unless you are snowed in, don't bother with this four hour marathon. Half of it should have been left on the cutting room floor, and you can never recover wasted time!

All the dialogue and the story is too expository by half. They might as well have had a sledgehammer. But this DVD is always always out at my local video shop. Why? Because lesbians are crying out for films that render us visible. No matter that it only takes up one of the four stories or no matter how bad it is. And this one is not the worst by far. How could Elle Macpherson making love to a woman ever be wrong? At any rate, film lovers, if you want a good lesbian film then get onto Showtime and New Line and Dreamworks and Paramount and tell them to invest in the dozens of awesome scripts featuring same sex themes that ARE out there.

It's a rather emotional film, I only saw the last three parts but I really liked it. Trust me, it's one great production which you will enjoy. The second story has a rather unexpected ending. It could bring tears to anybody, it's a very interesting subject which might make you realize some things which maybe you have missed in the rush of life. The third story is fantastic. I loved it. It could be true for any of us. The last story is ... scary I guess, but not totally unreal. All the stories are about feelings that we all of the people share. We sometimes show them, sometimes hide them, sometimes ignore them, but we all have them in our daily lives: love, hate, betrayal, revenge, a drop of madness, solitude...and at the end of the day the bottom line is we all need help, just a little push in the right direction and someone to understand you.

Most astute U.S. movie viewers have recognized the talents and skills of the excellent Stockard Channing. More gratifying than seeing her quality finally recognized with the rolls she has played in both "A Girl Thing" (TV mini series)and in the White House centered series is the appearance of the former series as an entire movie available in both VHS and DVD in video stores nationwide. As a psychiatrist whose patients are mostly women she serves as the hub through which the four different patient centered episodes revolve.

Although the first three would result in a "good" movie, we are not let off or let down by that being the case. In the forth and final episode Channing (the "doctor") figures not just peripherally as the center but is the main character around which the drama unfolds. Confronted by an intelligent and dangerously angry patient, the doctor fails to establish any healthy connection and terminates the patient. This soon results in a violent confrontation, which puts the doctor, another patient and a few others in an explosively dangerous situation in the psychiatrist's office. Channing herself is challenged to justify all that she has done, is doing and believes in concerning people in general and her professional relationships with them in particular.

Does she make a good showing for herself? Is anyone hurt, and, if so how badly?

Watch the movie and find out.