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, 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.

A compelling and agreeable multi-story ensemble dramedy from writer/director Sebastián Gutiérrez, who has made several of these anthology format films. I'm particularly fond of these kinds of ensemble films and while there remain some acceptably unresolved loose ends by the time GIRL WALKS INTO A BAR is over, it's a very intriguing and entertaining movie. While its storyline is pretty thin, I felt it maintained interest through an effective Tarantino-esque intersection of characters and plenty of engaging dialog and an abundance of stimulating eye candy. Its focus is on character confrontation and interaction rather than the unveiling of the beginning, middle, and ending of a storyline, although it's a few of its story lines converge and resolve intriguingly. One segment shifts into voice-over narration by one of the characters; another segment suddenly shifts into another character's internal monologue, but I felt Gutiérrez handled these transitions effectively and they never seemed jarring; going with the flow of the film and its occasional style transitions, there is much to be absorbed out of this movie. For an independent film, Gutiérrez has attracted a notable A-list cast, including Carla Gugino (she happens to by Gutiérrez's wife, and has starred in about a dozen of his films), Danny Devito, Rosario Dawson, Josh Hartnett, Robert Forster, and Zachary Quinto, whose diverse stories intertwine and pass in the night as the characters interact between ten different L.A. bars during the course of one evening. Singer/songwriter Grant Lee Phillips supplies a folk-rock based soundtrack and has a brief role as a bar singer, performing a likeably cynical song written with Gutiérrez, called "Only Bad Can Come," that fits nicely into the mixture of story lines being conveyed. The film was the first feature film to be made specifically for internet distribution, although fortunately it's made its way onto DVD for non-streaming watchability.

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.

I was really looking forward to watching this movie as the cast was in my opinion just filled with many of those near "A" star type actors that just really never get the credit that they so long deserve. One of my favourite under rated actors is Robert Forster and he did not disappoint me in his role as a guy named Dodge. Dodge first appears half way in to the film and he is the father of a son and a daughter. His son is a grifter named Henry played by Aaron Tveit, and his daughter is a stripper named Teresa played by Emmanuelle Chriqui. It would appear that Henry has learned his trade as a Grifter, from his dad Dodge, and his sister Teresa is not too fond of how their daddy has earned his living.

Carla Gugino is the main star of the film and the only constant character throughout the film. She plays a private eye named Francine Driver who is working undercover as a purported hit lady who is hired by a dentist named Nick played by Zachary Quinto to kill his wife. Unfortunately for Francine after successfully capturing on tape a clear confession by Nick the dentist to kill his wife, Francine runs in to the handsome young grifter named Henry played by Aaron Tveit who picks her purse. Henry steals Francine's wallet and the video recording of the dentist's confession that he wants his wife murdered and is willing to pay $20K for the (phony) hit lady to complete the job.

So the story line does sound interesting doesn't it? Unfortunately as Francine is seen travelling from bar to bar in search of the grifter Henry who stole her tape recording we are subjected to far too much irrelevant rhetoric from a cast of characters that just went on about nothing. This is where I felt the movie had lost me, and although adding bona fide actors like Rosario Dawson and Gil Bellows should have made the film more intriguing, I felt the film went flat.

I was hoping for more of an entertaining story as the entire film takes place in a series of bars with characters that somehow intertwine. When you have stars such as Danny DeVito, Josh Hartnett, Xander Berkeley, Zachary Quinto, Carla Gugino, Gil Bellows, and Rosario Dawson, a viewer just expects more from the movie. As an example, I cannot say enough about the fine film Dinner Rush which starred Danny Aiello, and also took place entirely in a restaurant bar. Now Dinner Rush was just an awesome film which I am sure to watch again. As for A Girl Walks In To A Bar, the title is a misnomer, since the girl in question Francine Driver, walks in to a number of bars and I walked out of the film being very much short changed. I gave it a 4 out of 10 rating and that is based on two strong performances by Robert Forster and Carla Gugino, otherwise my rating would have been lower.