GUINEVERE (Miramax) Starring: Sarah Polley, Stephen Rea, Jean Smart, Gina Gershon. Screenplay: Audrey Wells. Producers: Jonathan King and Brad Weston. Director: Audrey Wells. MPAA Rating: R (adult themes, profanity) Running Time: 105 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
Audrey Wells, the screenwriter behind THE TRUTH ABOUT CATS AND DOGS, returns to some familiar thematic ground for her directing debut GUINEVERE. Like CATS AND DOGS, GUINEVERE is a tale of a young woman's self-realization through photography; also like CATS AND DOGS, and much to its advantage, it's a story elevated by a radiant lead performance. It's almost too easy to use the film's title for emphasis, but it's also true: in a film that runs out of gas before it runs out of time, Sarah Polley shines like cinema royalty, making it far easier to overlook GUINEVERE's tactical errors.
Polley stars as Harper Sloane, a 20-year-old recent college graduate plagued by feelings of inadequacy in her over-achieving upper class family. Enter Connie Fitzpatrick (Stephen Rea), the 40-something photographer at Harper's sister's wedding. Connie appeals to Harper with the suggestion that she has the potential for artistic self-expression, and offers himself as both lover and mentor. The relationship becomes complicated not just by their age difference, but by Harper's growing concern that she's not the first young woman to experience Connie's tutelage.
There's no question that Polley -- who dazzled in THE SWEET HEREAFTER and stole the multi-character GO -- is turning into one of the most gifted actresses of her generation. Like Janeane Garofolo in THE TRUTH ABOUT CATS AND DOGS, she makes insecurity genuinely affecting instead of merely affected, doing things with her mouth and her eyes that make your heart want to break. There is a scene involving Connie's first sexual advances that has been played in any number of films with a soft-focus earnestness; Polley giggles and shifts with nervous energy, finding the awkwardness at the heart of initial intimacies. She is ably complemented by Rea -- who takes an alcoholic lecher and manages to make him as sympathetic as he is slimy -- and Jean Smart -- a caustic delight as Harper's mother.
Something about GUINEVERE, however, begins to feel forced. The tone grows unnecessarily "heavy," turning a frisky coming-of-age piece into one of those "I was never the same after that summer stories." Wells also plays her ace too early, making a revelation about the nature of Harper and Connie's relationship that turns much of the film into a waiting game. While it's bitterly funny watching Mrs. Sloane dissect Connie's motives, it provides too simple an explanation for the complex dynamics of a potentially interesting relationship, and ultimately shifts the balance of the film away from Harper and towards Connie. Though Wells' GUINEVERE has a lot going for it in the way of sharp dialogue and finely crafted character moments, the film-maker stumbles when she doesn't realize that the best thing she's got going is Polley. In this bright young actress's capable hands, this story of lessons in love earns solid marks.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 damsels under stress: 7.
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