Romance à la une

Novel Romance is a witty, clever romantic comedy that was a huge crowd-pleaser at the LaFemme Film Festival in Los Angeles. It tackles contemporary issues of career/marriage/childbearing and parenting with an original twist. Can Max Normane find fulfillment both as a successful professional woman and as a single mother? And how is she to accomplish that when men and sex have taken backseat roles in this driven and zany woman's life? Traci Lords shows wonderful comedic ability as Max, and Paul Johanssen's sex-appeal oozes through the disheveled facade of character Jake Buckley, aka unsuccessful writer--starving, but too proud to "compromise" his talents. Where have Lords and Johanssen been until now? Their chemistry lights up the screen. Great supporting performances by Sherilynn Fenn and Mariette Hartley. Writer/director/producer Emily Skopov has accomplished an enormous feat in her very first feature film. She has gone beyond cliché to present real people with real needs in our very complex society where modern choices do not always trump age-old instincts of human behavior.