Beautiful Girls (1996)

Idea: Willie (Timothy Hutton) returns home to attend "the reunion" and to reassess his life during a reprieve from his girlfriend. As can only occur in such movies, he drinks away his time with his former high school gang, including Tommy (Matt Dillon), Mo (Noah Emmerich), and Paul (Michael Rappaport). Of course, Tommy and Paul are facing crises of their own, as Tommy must break off his affair with a married high school sweetheart (Lauren Holly) in order to keep his current girlfriend (Mira Sorvino) and Paul believes his long time lover (Martha Plimpton) to be having an affair of her own. Meanwhile, Willie forms a strong bond with Marty (Natalie Portman), his precocious 13 year-old next door neighbour.

Alright, so, in case it isn't clear, I don't think much of the premise. That's okay, though. Not every movie is necessarily all about plot, right? I tried to describe this movie to some friends recently, and all that came out was, "It's like Garden State."

I know that's a terrible comparison, esp. since this movie came out nearly a decade before. But all these movies are sort of the same, aren't they? This guy goes back to his home town, everyone is glad to see him and be his friend again, and he sorts out his problems in a very short time frame. It's the kind of thing that really only happens in movies, but we never fail to fall for it.

In any case, Scott Rosenberg's screenplay has a certain lack continuity to it but that doesn't diminish it's believability. Things come out of nowhere in real life, too, so you can't be too surprised with Rosie O'Donnell's inspired, if misplaced, rants. Even so, Rosenberg works better as a collaborator (e.g. High Fidelity) v. writing on his own (e.g. Gone in Sixty Seconds).

I don't care for Ted Demme's direction. Every movie of his that I have seen feels drawn out and sloppily put together.

And Hutton. Hutton's a talented actor in his own right, and I love the scenes that he shares with Portman. In this film, though, thinking back on his characterization and costume, he comes across as a poor man's John Cusack, which he is not.

I love Emmerich, though. He always seems like he'd be a great friend to have.

So would I recommend this movie? Yes.

Confusing, I know. The movie looks better if you view it as a collection of moments rather than a film in its entirety. To watch Rappaport go on about supermodels as "bottled hope" or to hear Uma Thurman give that "good night sweet girl" speech is well worth the rental fee.