She's So Lovely (1997)
Reviewed by: Ken Varnum
Ranking: ** (out of 5)
Starring: Sean Penn, Robin Wright Penn, Harry Dean Stanton, John Travolta, Debi Mazar
Directed by: Nick Cassavetes
This movie about two dysfunctional families never really gets off the ground, despite some good performances from a basically competent cast. Eddie (Sean Penn) and Maureen (Robin Wright Penn) are a not-so-happily married couple down on their luck. Living in rented rooms in the seedier part of an unnamed city, they spend what little income they have at the local bar, owned by Shorty (Stanton), Eddie's best friend, and his wife Georgie (Mazar). Maureen and Eddie share an odd relationship marked by Eddie's frequent disappearances. On his return, he promises her the world and professes his undying love. Their manic reunions all too soon lead to new lows, as Eddie disappears again. Like a junky craving the next high, Maureen suffers through the lows to reach the next high. Their relationship is further complicated by Maureen's pregnancy. She wants the baby and the father, but deep down seems to sense the inevitability of losing the latter.
During one of Eddie's absences, Maureen is attacked by Kiefer, her neighbor, who gets her drunk (with her cooperation) and then insists on intimacy. She leaves badly bruised and in fear of what Eddie might do -- not to her, but to Kiefer. She lies about what happens to ensure that no harm will come to Eddie as the result of his inevitable rage. He lashes out as she expects, and ends up in an institution for what he believes to be 3 months -- but in reality is 10 years.
During this decade, Maureen divorces Eddie and remarries a more solid and reliable individual, Joey (Travolta, in a small role). Her life falls apart again when Eddie is released from the institution and comes to find her. Joey insists on bringing Eddie into his home and making his wife choose between her husband (and father of two children) and stability (Joey makes a good living, drives a Cadillac, and they live in a large house in the suburbs) and the love of her previous life. She chooses her past, and sacrifices not only her new life but her old (by giving up her and Eddie's daughter to Joey). But the Eddie that she knew is gone, replaced by a mere shell of the man he was. Maureen is herself a mere shell, more an automaton than a woman -- as if she had gone through whatever therapy and treatment Eddie was given along with him. Perhaps these two really do need each other and can find happiness (or maybe the lack of sadness) together, but the movie's denouement was not convincing.
Ken Varnum varnum@mich.com (c) Copyright 1998. All Rights Reserved
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