If Lucy Fell A Film Review By Michael Redman Copyright 1996 By Michael Redman
** (out of ****)
Sarah Jessica Parker and Eric Schaeffer renew a suicide pact to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge together if they are not involved in fulfilling relationships by the time she turns 30. There's a heavy deadline because her birthday is in a month so they are both out there looking for the loves of their lives and hot to find them in four weeks.
If you can accept the premise, and that's a difficult task, there are a few decent scenes and a couple of great lines. Besides swallowing the outrageous concept ("We believe in reincarnation, so if we're not happy and in love in a few days, we'll kill ourselves."), you have to immerse yourself in the Generation X world (although at 30, the characters must be elder statespersons) where serious conversations are about spit and "Whatever" is a complete sentence.
There's not much interesting about the two main characters. They both seem superficial and the actors don't go very far towards livening them up. The two objects of their affections -- an inarticulate artist and the beautiful woman next door (Elle Macpherson) -- are infinitely more faceted.
The theme of the film, people stuck in the same ole same ole get on with their lives when they set a deadline, holds some universal appeal. Parker moves on a career plan, dumps her sorta boyfriend and starts dating. Schaeffer has an art show of his paintings and finally approaches the woman he has admired for year.
Unfortunately the film is filled with cliches (two long-time friends go looking for love, guess who they end up with) and long periods of time where nothing happens. Some nice music though.
[This appeared in the 3/14/96 "Bloomington Voice", Bloomington, Indiana. Michael Redman can be contacted at redman@bvoice.com]
-- mailto:redman@bvoice.com This week's film review at http://www.bvoice.com/ Film reviews archive at http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Michael%20Redman
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