1. This review penned June 2016 at a time when the ONLY reviews on the IMDb were -- "coincidentally" -- from members who -- "mysteriously" -- had all joined at EXACTLY the same time, had all left only one single review for posterity (of this film, DUH) and all thought it was the greatest thing since Godfather or Star Wars or sliced bread. So, in the interest of fair coverage, I wanted to offer a slightly more objective review from a member with more than one review to his credit. That would be me.
2. A newbie to romcoms might be forgiven for thinking that Woody Allen invented the "mismatched couple" trope with Annie Hall, but this is not true. If you go back to the golden age of film (the 1930s and 1940s) you will find a number of these kinds of scripts, mostly B movies, but many with big names like Harlow and Arthur. Allen does get credit perhaps for deconstructing this kind of story (more than once, in fact) and then rebuilding it, taking it to a new level for the modern viewer.
3. Which of course is precisely what writer/Director Bartell had in mind with Dirty Beautiful. Deconstucting the "mismatched couple" story and then rebuilding it, hopefully, into something new and different. Bartell does succeed -- for about 10 minutes. The setup is great. A clearly neurotic young man for whom women are a complete mystery stumbles across a homeless girl (hot, bright, chatty) who basically has only two questions, DO YOU HAVE A GIRLFRIEND and DO YOU WANT ONE? Great concept. If they gave Oscars for a logline, this would get a nomination. But they don't. Good films need more than a clever setup.
4. The film peaks at about the 15:00 minute mark and if you stick it out, you will end up almost as neurotic as the central character. The chemistry between the two principles is not there. The script and direction falter. The first person narrative (talking into the camera, as if to the viewer) gets old real fast. If this film were an elevator, it starts at the top floor and just keeps dropping during the run-length.
7. I think my rating is fair. I think everyone involved -- Bartell and his stars -- are capable of doing better. Woody Allen is not staying up nights worried about losing his niche.
8. If you really really want to see this storyline done to perfection, I recommend MY SASSY GIRL, the original 2001 version, in Korean, with subs. (There are multiple remakes of the original, and you can ignore them all.) It is essentially "as good as it gets" for this theme. And entertaining as hell.
