Nicole Holofcener, writer/director of the critically acclaimed Walking and Talking, shifts her focus from New York to Los Angeles for her second feature, Lovely & Amazing. Jane Marks (Brenda Blethyn of Secrets and Lies) is a middle-aged woman who's about to undergo liposuction. She has three daughters. Michelle (Catherine Keener) is a cynical, self-involved, would-be artist in an unhappy marriage. Elizabeth is a struggling actress who constantly takes in stray dogs. Her insecurities about her
attractiveness come to the fore when she blows a screen test with a big movie star, Kevin (Dermot Mulroney). The youngest of the Marks sisters, Annie (Raven Goodwin), is an overweight eight-year-old African-American girl whose birth mother was an addict. Jane has adopted Annie, and is determined to provide her with a better life. Jane has a crush on her suave surgeon (Michael Nouri of Flashdance), but her family is thrown into chaos when complications arise during her outpatient procedure, and she's forced to stay in the hospital. Michelle, pressured by her husband (Clark Gregg) to take some financial responsibility for raising their young daughter, eventually gets a part-time job working in a one-hour photo booth, where she meets Jordan (Jake Gyllenhaal), a misfit teen who awkwardly flirts with her. Elizabeth's boyfriend, Paul (James LeGros), who seems to disapprove of the entertainment industry, leaves her. Annie eats compulsively and misbehaves. When the family is faced with a series of crises, relationship patterns that had solidified over the years subtly begin to change. A festival favorite, Lovely & Amazing has been shown at the 2001 Telluride Film Festival, the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival, and the 2002 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
The ensemble Holofcener has assembled comprises some of the best actresses working today, and they inhabit their roles with the astringency and softness these characters demand.
The impressive thing about Holofcener's non-judgemental generosity with character, which at times recalls an American Mike Leigh, is that she makes no concessions to easy endearment.
Has a lovely feel, interactions that are real & unafraid to broach life's insecurities -- ie: personal appearance from hair to body fat. However, doesn't add up to amazing.
Who'd have thought spending 90 minutes with a bunch of neurotic women could be such fun? An intelligent, unassuming drama that's never less than enjoyable.
I can't imagine why a guy would go to this movie. That is, unless he talks to me or some other guy who has seen it. Because it's one of the best films I've seen this year.
As in Walking and Talking, her comic lament on the evils that brides do to their maids of honor, [Nicole] Holofcener strikes a careful balance between distaff divertissement and stark, semiautobiographical realism.
"Lovely and Amazing is a story about real people. These people are insecure about their lives. They aren't convinced that there's some inner beauty about them. They see themselves as I suspect most people do, mostly for the flaws. However, these are still
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