La fille d'en face

A seemingly dark plot line is suprisingly (and delightfully) light-hearted in the lovely film. Two friends, Joe and Lucy, decide to challenge themselves to keep a promise made in their college years: to kill themselves if they are not both in successful relationships by the time Lucy turns 30. This movie takes a unlikely device and makes it seem poissible and introduces characters who are easy to care about and believe in. This film has a beautiful pop soundtrack by Marry Me Jane, and is handled admirably by Eric Schaeffer's humane hand. This film has great performances, and is a treat for Sarah Jessica Parker fans especially. The theme is a common movie theme of happiness is often right under your nose, but it is handled in a unusual way. All Around this movie is fun

Essentially, I found this movie meaningless. Even though I do like Sarah Jessica Parker, Joe (played by Eric Schaeffer) seemed like an unnecessary jerk. He who has been watching through a telescope supermodel Elle MacPherson, suddenly becomes turned off by her when she admits to having fantasized about him. Dissapointing ending.

Don't tune into this film if you are looking for the sparkling actress, Sarah Jessica Parker. In this film she is "angst" ridden and her male room mate "Joe" is well a, frustrated (in every since of the word), struggling artist.

They were best college pals and have shared a rather large NYC apartment, until one or both find "the one" for them.

Wish, I could find something positive to say, but it just isn't there. An interesting, if rather trite, premise, completely misses the mark in every area. Are they supposed to be "avant garde?" The "edgy" soundtrack, and weird performance/character "Blick" played by Ben Stiller, tips me off that they were aiming for "hip or black comedy." Elle Macphearson was completely wasted, and half of her screen time, she was wearing some "hunter in the great white north hat." Terrible.

Whatever. None of it works, and parts of the script were so pathetic and embarrassing (i.e. "would you drink my spit?" and the hug test), it seems that someone would have objected.

By the way, who is the actor portraying the faithful room mate, Joe. Hope the casting directors are hanging their heads in shame, along with the wardrobe department, and script writers.

Too much time spent on his pathetic weirdness, would have been better spent fleshing out the relationship between Lucy and her father. Did most of end up on the editing room floor, in favor of more screen time for "Joe?"

All around sad, check out episodes of "Sex and the City," to see what this film was trying to capture, but missed by a mile. What makes it worse, are the few glimpses of "what could have been." This will only make you more disappointed, in the overall film.

I saw this in the movies. I think it was the one and only time in my entire life I've fallen asleep in public. But that might have been my date. Either way, this movie was terrible. Now, I've seen it again. It wasn't just age or what was going on with my life - or who I was with. This is a terrible movie. The two lead characters who are supposed to be best friends are mean to each other and do not communicate clearly. Joe, the lead "male" and writer of the movie, dresses like a girl - complete with headband and dresses and leggings. In fact, he dresses like a little girl in the 1980's. The lead woman, played by SJP, who I can never hate, is just not likable. Nor does she make sense. One second she likes Ben Stiller's pointless character, the next she's rolling her eyes at him like the rest of us. The base story is interesting and one of my favorites, I won't spoil what that is, but suffice it to say there was plenty of potential. This movie doesn't carry it off. The editing is bad - but perhaps that's mostly the fault of a shallow script and unlikeable characters. The actors can't be faulted. They do their best with virtually no material.

Platonic best friends and roommates Sarah Jessica Parker (a New York City therapist bored with her clients) and Eric Schaeffer (a struggling artist who also teaches art to kids) are frustrated over their lackluster love lives and recall a pact they made years before: if they're both without partners at the age of 30, they will jump off the Brooklyn Bridge together. Romantic comedy alternates between being jaded and sentimental; it has flashes of satirical wit--but only flashes. Parker doesn't have much of a character here; perhaps sensing this, she compensates for the lack of substance by doing silly bits of business (stretching, giggling, making faces). The most natural performance in the film is turned in by Elle Macpherson as Schaeffer's dream girl; the role is an enigma, but Macpherson's offhand appeal and easy manner gives this fantasy figure some personality, whereas Parker is stuck in a vacuum. Ben Stiller overdoes his small part as a celebrity artist and a young Scarlett Johansson turns up as one of Schaeffer's students (looking like a pint-sized Lolita). Schaeffer, who also wrote the screenplay and directed, runs hot and cold as an actor; wearing funny hats and talking in different rhythms, he doesn't overplay or underplay--he's just a goofy mensch, but not a dynamic one like Albert Brooks or Woody Allen. He's careful to give his character some shading, yet all the little quirks--like much of the serious dialogue--are strictly superficial. *1/2 from ****