Essas Garotas

American college student Patrick Dempsey travels to beautiful Quebec City to spend Christmas with girlfriend Jennifer Connelly, who informs him upon arrival that she's no longer in love with him. Spending the vacation with her eccentric family -- including nudist/Pascal expert Andre Gregory, staunch Catholic Florinda Balkan and the luscious Sheila Kelley -- teach him a thing or two about the mysteries of life, love and women.

Cleverly written and gorgeously mounted -- wait til you see that house -- "Some Girls" is the kind of offbeat and eccentric comedy that the French often do so well but Americans rarely attempt. Little-seen upon its initial release, the film has developed a well-deserved cult following.

Love is in the air. Be it true love or merely puppy love, it is ever-present throughout the film, Some Girls. Starring both Patrick Dempsey, as Michael, and Jennifer Connelly, as Gaby, this movie contains something for everyone, depending on how insightful the viewer chooses to be. It can be taken as simply a hilarious comedy or a genuinely profound portrayal of love and human nature; the viewer is given this choice.

As a comedy, Some Girls plays on Dempsey's vulnerabilities, or in other words, the fact that he is a teenage male that has yet to figure out women. Michael, continually rejected by his quondam love, Gaby, is repeatedly taken advantage of by Connelly's on-screen sisters, Irenka and Simone, and he inadvertently falls in love with Granny. Dempsey's naivety gets him into a countless number of awkward situations with the women of the D'Arc family, such as winding up in bed with them and getting caught in the nude, which adds to the humor of the movie.

The love that Michael and Granny feel for each other is a transition between the comical and the symbolic sides of this film. In the wonderfully set-up scene where Michael undresses Granny, the viewers start to feel uncomfortable when they realize that Granny isn't going to be innocently nude. She enjoys the attention, and because this type of sexual encounter is not socially accepted, it causes unease. Due to the discomfort that this scene causes in the viewer, it becomes humorous that this teenage boy is undressing this old woman who is quickly falling for him. However, it is not humor alone that is at work here. This scene sets up the rest of the movie and allows for true love to blossom.

Although Michael went to Quebec to see his "love", Gaby, he fell in love with the last person that he expected, or even desired to fall in love with: Granny. The two of them became unbelievably close during the film and developed a love deeper than the one that he had only imagined forming between him and Gaby. There love was true love, despite the fact that Dempsey tried to push it aside at the very beginning. However, Michael let up his guard, letting himself fall madly and deeply in love with Granny, the woman he could never have due to both society and mortality.

For the movie aficionado who loves symbolism, Some Girls is a wonderful choice of movies. It is a film that can be watched over and over again and something new will occur to the viewer each and every time that it is watched. The viewer may discover what Botticelli's Three Graces, who appear several times during the film, have to do with the three D'Arc sisters or maybe why Beowulf jumped out of the window with the clock in his mouth. He or she may realize why the unicorn tapestry covers Gaby's bedroom door or why the girls' father feels that he must write in the nude. The viewer may realize that the film both begins and ends with water and why that fact is so important. In order to appreciate these things, however, the movie must be watched and it must be watched more than once.

Some Girls is truly a structural masterpiece. It appears as if in every scene, there is some hidden symbol, or underlying idea, that makes the film multifaceted instead of just straightforward and simple to understand. The details make the film an extraordinary one instead of just an ordinary one. The flashback scene exemplifies the structural merit better than any other scene. It is perfectly choreographed, with the time being split between the car scene and the window-closing scene well enough to keep the viewer on the edge of his or her seat. The flashback went from the peacefulness of the window closing to the frenzied ride to the hospital without falter. Another wonderful scene that demonstrates the film's magnificent structure is the scene in which Michael and Granny are alone in the old abandoned house. Nothing whatsoever prepares the viewer for what is about to come, and it is better left that way. It merely shows love in its purest form.

In the same way that Michael receives something that he didn't expect from going to Quebec, the viewer receives something that he or she probably doesn't expect from the movie. Michael learns what love is all about and the viewer learns what great films are made of. By the end of the movie, Michael has changed for the better. He has matured, learned a little about women, fallen in love, and maybe even gained some religion from his experiences. He left the three women of the D'Arc family, and moved on to the woman of the Lumiere family. By doing this, he moved from the darkness to the light, as their surnames symbolically imply. Hopefully, the viewer can do the same if they take the time to watch this exquisite film.

Jennifer Connelly + "Teen Comedy" = loads of T&A, right? No. This movie is about a thousand times smarter and more reflective than that. This movie made me more interested in seeing her movies for her acting and not just the yards of sweaty flesh. She's made some crapola since then; "Inventing the Abbotts" was a gigantic waste of everyone involved, "Mulholland Falls" made me genuinely wonder if she was about to pull a Bridget Fonda but then "Requiem for a Dream" and "A Beautiful Mind" set the world to right. This is a preview of the kind of career choices she was going to start making, with occasional forays into titillation-land to cover the rent.

It's just a movie, it's not going to reach out and change you or make you see God or anything. You will have to do that yourself. But it does draw you in anticipating a standard farce and instead getting a reflection on desire, wishes and the true definition of a life well lived.

There's plenty of teeny skin-and-blood (both original and new Irony-flavored) flicks out there, rent those if you want to be cool like everyone else. If you want to spend some time musing about a movie after you see it, rent this.

In struggling to decide what this film wants to be but never quite is, the best I could come up with was a Noah Baumbach film. Quirky but not quiet quirky enough to feel original. Tracing what is basically an internal personal journey only to where exactly or why is never clear. Dealing with eccentric characters who might be colorful and entertaining but in fact seem self-involved and annoying. Probably the most interesting thing about the movie is seeing Patrick Dempsey looking way more like Jesse Eisenberg than anyone resembling the (apparently) dreamy lead he is today. Which prompts me to think that the film has hints of "Adventureland" as well, but without that film's clarity.

I actually watched this movie twice. It wasn't on purpose I just forgot what I was watching until about 20 minutes in and then I didn't mind watching it again. The film isn't great but was a good movie. The plot was kind of out there and you kept wanting more of the sex but that is not what this film was actually about. This is more of a drama and the end is kind of sweet really. The acting is not bad either. Most of the actors are not well known but I knew two of them. If you have some time check this film out but don't expect a comdey.