This is a romantic comedy (kind of) starring James Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss.
It's a very novelistic kind of film, in that it seems to me to be less a genre film (romantic comedy), than a consideration of "how we live now."
James Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss meet at a party and start dating. At the same party, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss meets a very elegant woman (Catherine Keener) who, it turns out, is a published poet. Dreyfuss is a massage therapist and Keener soons becomes her client; after a while, they also become friends.
Louis-Dreyfuss is excited about dating Gandolfini, and optimistic about where their relationship might lead.
One day, Dreyfuss makes the startling realization that Keener is Gandolfini's ex-wife, and that her new boyfriend is the same person that Keener has been roundly and bitterly criticizing (sometimes about petty things) every time that she and Keener have met.
Holofcener is a filmmaker who makes films that are not entirely conventional (nor are they entirely unconventional). She does not seem to feel the need to divert us at every moment and make each step of the plot conform to our expectations. As beautiful as both Louis-Dreyfuss and Keener are, she allows both actresses to do ugly things.
I enjoyed this film and would highly recommend it with the understanding that it is not The Proposal, that is, not a highly conventional romantic comedy. There are two things I like very much about it. One is that its portrait of women is a little more well-rounded than that in many films. The other is that this in film, she allows all of her actors, Gandolfini, Louis-Dreyfuss and Keener, to play roles that are not exactly their type. It's especially refreshing to see Gandolfini in a gentler role, one a little more like my favorite performance of his in the Christian Slater-Rosanna Arquette romantic comedy, True Romance.
It's a very novelistic kind of film, in that it seems to me to be less a genre film (romantic comedy), than a consideration of "how we live now."
James Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss meet at a party and start dating. At the same party, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss meets a very elegant woman (Catherine Keener) who, it turns out, is a published poet. Dreyfuss is a massage therapist and Keener soons becomes her client; after a while, they also become friends.
Louis-Dreyfuss is excited about dating Gandolfini, and optimistic about where their relationship might lead.
One day, Dreyfuss makes the startling realization that Keener is Gandolfini's ex-wife, and that her new boyfriend is the same person that Keener has been roundly and bitterly criticizing (sometimes about petty things) every time that she and Keener have met.
Holofcener is a filmmaker who makes films that are not entirely conventional (nor are they entirely unconventional). She does not seem to feel the need to divert us at every moment and make each step of the plot conform to our expectations. As beautiful as both Louis-Dreyfuss and Keener are, she allows both actresses to do ugly things.
I enjoyed this film and would highly recommend it with the understanding that it is not The Proposal, that is, not a highly conventional romantic comedy. There are two things I like very much about it. One is that its portrait of women is a little more well-rounded than that in many films. The other is that this in film, she allows all of her actors, Gandolfini, Louis-Dreyfuss and Keener, to play roles that are not exactly their type. It's especially refreshing to see Gandolfini in a gentler role, one a little more like my favorite performance of his in the Christian Slater-Rosanna Arquette romantic comedy, True Romance.
