Understanding Jane is one of those films that wants to analyse relationships and depict realistic characters in reasonably plausible predicaments. It does so merely satisfactorily. The plot involves two male losers (both "losing" in their own unique way) calling up date adverts in the hope of finding someone special. They do this together and, before long, happen come upon two scheming girls. One of the girls is clearly more scheming than the other. Thus we embark on a series of mishaps and relative insights on how this foursome get on (or don't) with each other, made all the more difficult by Curtis' "Dallas" character. That's the plot. Does this work for 90 minutes? Yes and no.
My first quip with this film is ... people go to see a film to "watch" it, not listen to it. This film is so blatantly influenced by the narrative protege of Trainspotting and Human Traffic but can't quite achieve this because the budget is very limited. The film is made up with a series of vingettes involving the characters talking an and analysing anything from blowjobs to Star Wars (Nowadays, if you're dealing with a character-driven relationship film, you have to include why Return of the Jedi is better than Empire Strikes Back etc.) This soon wears out and becomes tiresome. This film would do just as well if it were a radio play - perhaps even better. Why better? Well, because - and to be honest (there's no denying this) - the film's image quality is very poor - it appears to have been shot on 16mm stock that's been resting in an oven for fifteen hours and the sound quality is reasonable - not that it means much, as the film is shot entirely on location and most of the background noises intrude on what otherwise might have been the perfect edit.
On the whole, Understanding Jane's bad qualities half ruin the brilliant ones: a first rate performance from Curtis as the bitchy Dallas is ruined by hammy dialogue and a sense of character that wouldn't mind any outcome. John Simm is horrible wasted - a pre-toxic excursion on his character in Human trafic, except slightly less funny, witty and interesting. Ultimately, I cared little for any of the characters in the film because A: the ones we care about are not only established almost instantly, but get what they want in the first 20 minutes, and B: the characters we're not supposed to like don't care anyway about what happens to them.
Ultimately, Understanding Jane is a wildly amibitious film that wants you to care about characters who don't care about themselves, made in a tiresome and uninteresting way, shot lousily by first time director Lindsay, from a cheesy melodramatic and extremely sporadically funny script by first time screenwriter Mummery. The only saving graces to be had are the performances. Understanding Jane is worth watching. But only just.
4.5/10
