Beautiful Girls

Channel surfing on a snowy day last winter, stumbled on this movie with an intriguing name: 'Beautiful Girls.' Found a terrific movie I had somehow missed when it came out. An incredible cast, great characters, sweet, funny, engaging, and good music to boot. I recently saved it on Tivo, and one of its many charms is that like a book you love, you can pick it up at any spot in the story and be engaged for 5-10-30 minutes or an hour, put it down, and pick it up again.

I keep telling my friends to rent it, but I think they are put off by the title –they expect some movie with Mira Sorvino, Uma Thurman, Natalie Portman, Lauren Holly, and Annabeth Gish to be something this movie isn't – an exploitative movie about 'beautiful girls' – when it is in fact a charming movie about how people move through life yet retain a sense of who they are if they can remember where they came from.

A terrific ensemble cast brings this film to life, which focuses on the difficulties some face in making that final, `mental' leap from adolescence to adulthood, and spend way too many years trying to sort it all out. As one of the characters so tellingly puts it at one point, `I'm not anywhere close to being the man I thought I'd be--' and the denial, that failure to accept the fact that time stands still for no man, and the inability to choose which path to take when you hit that inevitable fork in the road, forms the basis for director Ted Demme's examination of how human nature affects the process of maturating, in `Beautiful Girls,' a drama featuring Timothy Hutton, Matt Dillon and a young Natalie Portman.

Willie Conway (Hutton) is back home in the Midwest for his high school reunion, but more than that, to try and make some decisions about his future. He finds that nothing much has changed-- the town, or his old friends, most of whom seem to be exerting more time and energy attempting to cling to what was, rather than moving on with their lives. Tommy Rowland (Dillon), for instance, the high school `hero,' as it were, now drives a snowplow; for all intents and purposes, his life `peaked' in high school, and he can't seem to get past it. Then there's Paul (Michael Rapaport), who just doesn't seem to want to grow up; after a seven year relationship with Jan (Martha Plimpton), he refuses to make that final commitment-- after all, `What's the rush?'

All of which does nothing to help Willie with his own dilemma; the only words of wisdom he gets from anyone, in fact, come from the precocious thirteen-year-old, Marty (Natalie Portman), who lives next door. But in a couple of days, Tracy (Annabeth Gish), the girl Willie `thinks' he wants to marry, is due to arrive from Chicago, so it's time to move beyond the crossroads; for Willie, it's decision time.

Demme delivers a story that just about everyone in the audience is going to connect with on some level, because everyone's gone through (or will go through) these kinds of things at one time or another. Who hasn't experienced, if only for a moment, that sense of either wanting to stay as they are or going back to what they were, when life was better, or at least simpler. Or more fun. Working from a screenplay by Scott Rosenberg, Demme examines the relationships between this eclectic group of individuals in a way that offers some insights into human nature that will no doubt elicit some reflection on the part of the viewer. It all points up that, no matter what it may look like on the surface, underneath it all we're not so different from one another; we all share that common bond of learning life's lessons one day at a time, albeit in our own particular way, which corresponds to who we are as individuals. And Demme succeeds in telling his story with warmth and humor; by tapping into the humanity at the heart of it all.

The story may focus on Willie, but the film is a true ensemble piece, realized as it is through the sum of it's many and varied parts. It's a talented cast of actors bringing a unique bunch of characters to life that makes this film what it is, beginning with Hutton, who anchors it with his solid portrayal of Willie, a challenging role in that Willie has to be an average guy who is unique in his own right. The same can be said of Dillon's Tommy, in whom traces of Dallas Winston from `The Outsiders' can be found; Tommy is, perhaps, just Dallas a few years later.

Mira Sorvino gives a memorable performance by creating the most sympathetic character in the film, Tommy's girlfriend, Sharon. This is the girl who was never going to be prom queen, and who up until now has lacked the self-confidence necessary to create a positive environment for herself. Lauren Holly, meanwhile, succeeds with her portrayal of Darian Smalls, the absolute opposite of Sharon, a young woman who is probably too positive for her own good and who lives the life of a perpetual prom queen, an individual who-- as another character succinctly puts it-- was `Mean as a snake,' back in the day. Good performances that add a balanced perspective to the film.

There are two performances here that really steal the show, however. The first being that of Michael Rapaport, who as Paul so completely and convincingly captures the very essence of an average Joe with not too much on the ball, no prospects for the future to speak of, but who is, at heart, a good guy. There's humor and pathos in his portrayal, which personifies that particular state of being the film is seeking to depict. Excellent work by Rapaport, and decidedly one of the strengths of the film.

The most memorable performance of all, however, is turned in by Natalie Portman, who at fifteen is playing the thirteen-year-old Marty, the girl mature and wise beyond her years (`I'm an old soul,' as she puts it), with whom Willie forms a kind of bond as she, in her own way, helps him to sort out his feelings and find his focus. Portman's performance here-- some three years before she would forever become Padme Amidala-- exhibits that spark and charismatic screen presence that has served her so well since, in films like `Anywhere But Here,' and `Where the Heart Is.' She has for some time been, and continues to be, one of the finest and most promising young actors in the business.

The cast also includes Noah Emmerich (Mo), Rosie O'Donnell (Gina), Max Perlich (Kev), Uma Thurman (Andrea), Anne Bobby (Sarah) and Pruitt Taylor Vince (Stanley), all of whom help to make `Beautiful Girls' a memorable and satisfying cinematic experience. And that's the magic of the movies. 8/10.

Having gone to my local video shop, wanting to rent either Gladiator or a big-budget blockbuster type film for my 'Girls Night In', I came across this in the Bargain Bin for only £2.99(about $5). I figured either the tape was run down (with it being ex-rental) or the film was crap and nobody ever rented it. However, the prospect of Matt Dillion and Timothy Hutton in the same film made me buy it (although my girlfriends were discouraged!)

So after a marathon evening of Gladiator followed by Being John Malkovich, I popped this in the Video and was enthralled! The acting was great and the story relevant to real-life. Everybody goes through these problems, after all. The chemistry between Willie (Timothy Hutton) and Marty (the wonderful Natalie Portman) was brilliant - even though the subject is considered taboo.

Matt Dillion's little triangle with Mira Sorvino and Lauren Holly is an entertaining sideline and Michael Rapaport provides the comic relief as we watch his crumbling relationship with Martha Plimpton. Rosie O'Donnell is also hilarious as the down-to-earth ready-to-break-your-balls-if-you-step-out-of-line type who is happy to rip the rose coloured glasses from your face whenever she feels its necessary.

There is a real sense of friendship between this all-star cast and that really the defining factor in this film. However, the real stars are Hutton and Portman who are simply brilliant. She has perfected the little vixen role in Leon (aka The Professional) and although the characters of Mathilda and Marty are completely different, there is that little inkling of a girl wanting to be loved by a man in her performance. Hutton handles his role with care - and his Winnie-The-Pooh speech is simply heartbreaking!

Beautiful Girls, notwithstanding its stellar cast, is a cerebral and multi-layered film which represents the emasculation of emotional and experiential films, which are often (and rightfully) vilified, or what might be called "chick flicks". To this end, Beautiful Girls is a veritable "guy flick" and addresses to a more emotional end, some of the same 20-something angst and existentialist related issues faced by men as seen in more obvious (and violent) examples such as Fight Club. This film is a richly textured character story, profiling one man's quest for self understanding and direction by returning to his banal hometown from the big city while at a crossroad in his personal life, and while entering a new epoch in his relationship with an equally banal woman. His amalgam of high school friends remain isolated, almost indentured, to the same working class routine which defined their adolescence, and have little hope of ever moving on, other than in their idle daydreams. His subsequent obsession with the barely pubescent girl next door, Marty,(Portman) is in fact somewhat reminiscent of the dialectic of beauty and decay explored in Thomas Mann's epic "Death in Venice" whereas her youth and perceived way of interpreting the world is enviable, almost infectious. She represents less of a sexual or romantic fixture in his mind than she does a crucible for all things he values and hopes for. And still hopes to be. This film is not for everybody, and some less patient, or intelligent, viewers will no doubt decry it as boring or slow. Indeed the storyline is far from cutting edge, but the real story in this film is the people, the place, and the raw emotion which we can all relate with. This film is an impressionist painting come to life and is perfect philosophical fodder for the introspective type.

My friends accuse me (rather accurately) for being a sap - for liking this 90's chic flick. But they are wrong about this movie. This movie is entertaining and sometimes fluffy, but more importantly it is real and timely. Amongst all the hype of the X-Gen, this movie boiled down our mood (all us kids who are still growing up) in a small town setting where the people were real (except for Rosie, she should have ended up on the editing room floor). The slight plot is less important than the setting and the circumstances. Winter in small town Massachusetts, on the frozen lakes, and the plowed roads and small taverns - on the edge of early mid-life adulthood for yet another lost generation...the movie leaves you with a cold warm snow feeling of hope and sorrow for people in transition, that usually only a classic novel (like those by F. Scott or Hemingway)can give you.