SHE'S SO LOVELY
A Film Review by James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 7.0 Alternative Scale: *** out of ****
United States, 1997 U.S. Release Date: 8/29/97 (wide) Running Length: 1:38 MPAA Classification: R (Profanity, violence) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Cast: Sean Penn, Robin Wright Penn, John Travolta, Harry Dean Stanton, Debi Mazar, James Gandolfini, Gena Rowlands Director: Nick Cassavetes Producer: Rene Cleitman Screenplay: John Cassavetes Cinematography: Thierry Arbogast Music: Joseph Vitarelli U.S. Distributor: Miramax Films
For anyone who is familiar with the movies of the late John Cassavetes, one of America's most fiercely independent film makers of the '60s and '70s, there will be no doubt that the screenplay for SHE'S SO LOVELY came from his pen. The director of this picture is Nick Cassavetes (UNHOOK THE STARS), the son of John and actress Gena Rowlands. And, since Rowlands appears in SHE'S SO LOVELY, this is, in a sense, a family production. The younger Cassavetes' approach to directing is different from his father's. Nick is more of a polished, traditional film maker. John relied upon improvisations from both his actors and his cinematographer; Nick scripts and choreographs everything beforehand. He may be following in his father's footsteps, but he is not attempting to copy him.
What might SHE'S SO LOVELY have been like had John Cassavetes directed it? While it's impossible to know for sure, we need look no farther than Cassavetes' most celebrated film, A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE, for some clues. Both films are about the alcohol-enhanced deterioration of a mad woman, and the pressure brought to bear on a family by an increasingly-traumatic situation. And there are times when Robin Wright Penn's Maureen in SHE'S SO LOVELY recalls Gena Rowlands' Mabel in A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE. So, while I'm not trying to suggest that the films are identical in any significant way, the similarities are striking enough to offer an idea of the kinds of themes that were important to John Cassavetes.
In 1996, there was a film called MAD LOVE, starring Chris O'Donnell and Drew Barrymore. That title would have been very appropriate for SHE'S SO LOVELY, a darkly comic drama about the debilitating effects of drinking from a cocktail made of love and insanity. Many of the film's themes are not fully realized, but, even in this form, it's difficult to deny the impact of SHE'S SO LOVELY, especially since it questions where our responsibility to ourselves ends and where our responsibility to our family begins.
Real-life couple Sean Penn and Robin Wright Penn play Eddie and Maureen, a husband and wife who are very much in love. When we first meet them, it's the late 1970s, although only the music, hairstyles, and clothing seem to differentiate the time period from today. Both Eddie and Maureen exhibit streaks of violent, self-destructive behavior. But, although Eddie carries a gun and isn't unwilling to use his fists, he never strikes Maureen. She and the child she carries are his reason for living. Neither husband nor wife is entirely sane, and when Eddie loses it in public and shoots a mental health care worker, he is sent away to an institution for the criminally insane.
A decade passes before Eddie is given his release, but the world he returns to is far different from the one he left. His best friend, Shorty (Harry Dean Stanton), is still the same, but his wife is not. During the last ten years, Maureen has cleaned herself up, divorced Eddie, and married a prosperous businessman named Joey (John Travolta). She lives in a big house with a swimming pool out back, and has three daughters (the oldest is a product of her troubled marriage to Eddie). It's an idyllic situation, yet when she learns of Eddie's release, Maureen feels the tug of long-buried feelings, and their re-emergence threatens not only her family's stability, but her own tenuous grip on sanity.
The only truly likable character in the film is Eddie and Maureen's nine-year old daughter, Jeanie (nicely portrayed by young Kelsey Mulrooney). Both of the leads are too mercurial to empathize with, and, although Joey is supposed to represent "sanity," his pugnacious insensitivity keeps him at arm's length. This creates an interesting dynamic -- since we, the audience, don't have a rooting interest, we are able to watch the characters' actions from a somewhat detached perspective.
While there are times that the script shows seams, the powerhouse performances of Penn and Wright Penn allow us to overlook many of these. In a way, SHE'S SO LOVELY functions more as an outline of a story than the actual story, but the two lead characters are presented so vividly, and their interaction is so intense, that it doesn't seem to matter much. If there's a weakness in character development, it's that Joey is a pretty one-dimensional lout, and Travolta plays him much like Vincent Vega from PULP FICTION.
SHE'S SO LOVELY is uncomfortable because it challenges our perceptions about love and family. Maureen and Joey have the American dream, but does it really mean anything? And is true love just another form of insanity? Some viewers will undoubtedly be dismayed by the film's abrupt ending (which isn't really an ending at all), but, by the time the end credits roll, we know all that we need to know to guess how things will probably turn out. SHE'S SO LOVELY isn't a flawless production, but it's a fitting tribute to John Cassavetes, and a reminder of the many ways that a woman can be under the influence.
Copyright 1997 James Berardinelli
- James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@mail.cybernex.net
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