Girl Walks Into a Bar

Sebastian Gutierrez's 'Girl Walks Into A Bar' may not be the cleverest or wittiest of its kind but I found it very colourful, amusing and atmospheric. It captures the essence of nightlife in the city quite well. The sets and/or lighting are pleasantly colourful. The settings and situations appear to be colour-coded. The score and cinematography are effective. That's the technical side.

Now to the writing, it's quite alright. There's a certain noire style to it. The characters are quirky. Some situations and dialogues feel a little forced and some jokes fall flat (especially in the Robert Forster track) but otherwise the dialogue is quite funny and delivered well.

The acting isn't bad either. Carla Gugino is excellent and Emmanuelle Chriqui is brilliant, especially in her opening sequence. Amber Valetta and Aaron Tveit are quite good too. Alexis Bledel and Danny Devito are great in their single scene. Zachary Quinto, Rosario Dawson and Josh Hartnett are adequate.

Overall, 'Girl Walks Into A Bar' is a funny atmospheric semi-noire film. Not a classic but enjoyable nonetheless.

"Girl Walks Into A Bar" is exceptionally well written, with every little story linked harmoniously with each other. Another reviewer mentioned the excessive use of stereotypes. If there is something you can stereotype, it's strip club regulars.

Despite all the anonymity the film tried to cover itself with, it will get the attention it rightfully deserves, because it's not, as most movies of the same caliber, funny for the sake of fun. This is real comedy, and while it may not make you laugh uncontrollably, you will find a certain kind of humour that has not been attempted in a long time. Sometimes the writing is so funny, there is no actual need for dialogue.

This is not, strictly speaking, a comedy. There are a few dramatic aspects to it, as well. I give this a 9/10, although I think it deserves something closer to 8.5. Certainly one of the best films of 2011, simply for being... simple!

I feel like those who have given this film such bad reviews either expected too much going into it or just couldn't let themselves go for the brief slice that this movie was. This is not a deep or complex movie, despite weaving together almost seamlessly multiple arcs, and it's not meant to be some heavy, meaningful piece (as least in my opinion). The point of any movie is to entertain, and I certainly was. I put this on with the intent to read a book while watching; by five minutes in I had abandoned the book completely. It's a quiet, unassuming comedy featuring some excellent performances. Simply charming.

Characters drink like one whiskey per minute (I'm not exaggerating), and nobody gets drunk. Bars are always completely empty but there's always some show on. The main story is nice but it's 10 minutes long. Lots of weird characters, but hey, who cares? What's the point of all this. You can look at Emmanuelle Chriqui, maybe you can get to the end without feeling you have wasted 1 hours 19 minutes. The silly western dance dury the end titles is the best part of the movie. Nice atmosphere and images overall, but I would have preferred watching a movie. I don't know what to say again but I have to continue writing IMDb says. Like writing things using more words makes something better... This policy of IMDb reminds me of this movie, it would have been good if it was a 20 minutes short film.

"Girl Walks Into a Bar" is, at once, both better and worse than it was marketed as: A witty comedy with a cast of strangers in inter-locking stories. It's the inter-locking stories part that gets disconcerting. That generally means we get too many loosely-related stories with too many characters that we barely get to know with meaningless plot lines that don't go anywhere. This movie isn't that, it's mostly better.

There are only two story lines, born from each other, with arguably two or three main characters. And the beginning totally gets us invested in them. Nick (Zachary Quinto) is sitting nervously at a bar and doesn't want anyone to join him because he's waiting for someone. Francine (Carla Gugino) is that someone; he just doesn't know that. Minutes later we suddenly have no one left to sympathize with when it is revealed that Nick is about to commit an unforgivable crime and Francine gives no concern to the lies she just said.

Henry (Aaron Tveit) walks into a bar and steals our attention back. He flirts with Francine and just for the fun of it, and steals her wallet. Our two story lines involve Nick on his mission of crime and the law enforcement on his tail while Francine is on the tail of Henry. Their night of adventure involves checking into a number of bars each with another person to meet. The cast list is quite the collection of talented, mostly recognizable names, but they have nothing to do. Sometimes they say things that are supposed to be clever but are not.

That's where the film is worse. The dialogue is not witty nor funny, and it should not be classified as a comedy. There were quite a few scenes which had actors saying crap that none of their characters should have said and which added no meaning or value to the film.

Then the movie ended with some kind of choreographed musical and dance number which didn't conclude anything. Almost unbeknownst to me, Nick's storyline was wrapped up in a previous scene (Josh Hartnett's only scene) but with one short, stupid phone call. Quinto can act, as can Hartnett, and a well written scene with confrontation was desperately needed. After the first two scenes, there was very little confrontation, and indeed revealed that you weren't watching much at all. "Girl Walks Into a Bar" seems visually interesting, with compelling lead characters, good acting and clever story lines but then doesn't really go anywhere.