LOVE ALWAYS
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
Sometimes you want to go to the movies just to get away from it all. Your brain is fried, and you need to relax.
For just such an occasion consider giving your mind a present of the new film LOVE ALWAYS -- a lightweight, romantic comedy and road picture that is the cinematic equivalent of easy listening music.
"I believe you can't experience life from a standstill," says the film's lead, Julia, explaining her philosophy of life. "I guess I'm a militant optimist." Julia, lovingly played by Marisa Ryan, possesses so much charm that she overcomes the fluff of the material and makes the picture worthwhile.
In a year that has already included KISSED's tastefully presented necrophilia -- now, there's an oxymoron -- and CRASH's erotic auto accidents, it is refreshing to see some good old fashioned and romantic sex. The opening sequence for LOVE ALWAYS features romantic intercourse, filmed in a lovely haze and with ballet-like choreography. Although the rest of the film is not of that high caliber, it does serve as an indication of what new director Jude Pauline Eberhard is capable. Few directors can stage sexual encounters that are both erotic and romantic. Those who try too often end up with little more than cheap thrills.
The script by the director features some beautiful lines but others can be so awful that one wonders how the actors kept a straight face. "Someday you're going to love somebody with the intensity of the Southern Hemisphere," Julia's boyfriend Mark (Michael Reilly Burke) manages to tell her without laughing. "I just want that somebody to be me." Now, I ask my female readers. How would you respond to such line? How fast would you show the guy the door?
Filmed in warm hues of orange and brown, this whimsical little romantic comedy manages to charm you even when the story is at its thinnest. Julia wants to leave San Diego to go north to meet up with Mark who has left for his job in Seattle. She tries unsuccessfully to get her brother to feel her sense of adventure and hitchhike with her. "Come on, there's a Starbucks-free America out there," she tells him with her infectiously perky enthusiasm.
The one-joke show has her going every direction on the compass. After getting into Washington state, she gets sidetracked to "Lost" Vegas, and later to Boston. She changes her traveling companions and vehicles about every ten minutes in the film. An old VW van loaded with "Virgin Sluts" -- that's a rock group -- pick her up in the middle of the Nevada desert, for example.
In an upbeat show, most of her traveling companions are wonderful to her, but the obligatory man-who-thinks-he-deserves-something-more is quickly dumped. Then again, agreeing to share a bed in a motel room with a strange man might lead most men to make a few assumptions. Still, this encounter is consistent with the rest of poor Julia's life. The men in her life don't stay, they just float by like leaves on a pond.
Moon Zappa plays Julia's best friend Mary Ellen. One scene has them in adjoining claw-foot bathtubs. As the candles burn everywhere, they engage in female small talk about their lives. This magical little episode makes no sense, and few households have concatenated tubs, but as a magical image it works.
Eventually Julia arrives at her destination, which is a shame. The journey was the reward.
LOVE ALWAYS runs just 1:30. It is rated R for sex, nudity, and profanity and would be fine for older teenagers. Although this good feeling, free spirited story is of little consequence, I liked hanging out with Julia enough to give the picture a mild thumbs up and ** 1/2.
**** = A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = Totally and painfully unbearable picture.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: September 23, 1997
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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