LIVING OUT LOUD
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: Two emotionally wounded people have
an off-kilter flirtation in a bittersweet comedy.
Holly Hunter plays a very confused divorcee unable
to cope with her changing world, and Danny DeVito
is a lonely elevator operator from her building.
The script meanders aimlessly over the short
distance it travels but the characters are worth
knowing. The story was inspired by two stories by
Anton Chekhov. Rating: 6 (0 to 10), high +1 (-4 to
+4)
Judith Nelson (played by Holly Hunter) is a very married woman at the beginning of LIVING OUT LOUD. Having quit medical school and become a nurse while her husband became a cardiologist, she has wound her whole life around her husband like thread wound on a spool. When he leaves her for another woman it is like removing the spool. What remains is a confused and knotted jumble without purpose or organization. She fantasizes a variety of crazy thoughts including a suicide that will take her ex-husband and his wife with her.
Meanwhile we also follow the story of Pat Francato (Danny DeVito), a widower with a daughter who is very sick. He plays poker and has gotten into trouble with loan sharks. He is the elevator operator in Judith's apartment building and has taken an interest in her, though he is painfully slow in getting around to talk to her. Pat realizes that an attractive blond like Judith--uh, Holly Hunter is a blond in this film--would not want a short bald man who is also in trouble. He starts pulling his life together. Judith, on the other hand, is a much weaker person and will have a much harder time getting on with her life. It is not a romance that has much of a chance. Judith needs some good advice and finds it in a blues singer at Jasper's, her favorite nightclub. Liz Bailey, played majestically by Queen Latifah, is a mother figure that Judith desperately needs at this crisis in her life.
Richard LaGravenese wrote and directed LIVING OUT LOUD taking his inspiration from two stories by Anton Chekhov, "The Kiss" and "Misery." (The latter is available at http://eldred.ne.mediaone.net/ac/misery.htm.). I did not realize that as I was watching the film but it explains a lot about the style and pace of the film. Not much can be said to happen in the LIVING OUT LOUD, which creates its characters, and then lets us look at them almost affixed in one episode of their lives. When one thinks of Hunter one first thinks of the supremely organized women she played in films like BROADCAST NEWS or even RAISING ARIZONA. Here she is almost the antithesis of that role. She is capricious, flighty, and internally crumbling. Above all she is self-destructive. It is really Hunter's film. We see a lot less depth in DeVito who is can almost be summed up with the phrase "nice guy." There is a great deal in this film that stretches the viewer's credulity. Liz Bailey very quickly becomes a friend and confidant of Judith. This seems particularly odd since Judith seems frequently to be more a pest than an honored customer at Jasper's. It even seems a little strange that Pat is interested in Judith, who is obviously trouble.
LIVING OUT LOUD is long on character and short on plot. I rate it a 6 on the 0 to 10 scale and a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 1998 Mark R. Leeper
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