Beautiful Girls

Having gone to my local video shop, wanting to rent either Gladiator or a big-budget blockbuster type film for my 'Girls Night In', I came across this in the Bargain Bin for only £2.99(about $5). I figured either the tape was run down (with it being ex-rental) or the film was crap and nobody ever rented it. However, the prospect of Matt Dillion and Timothy Hutton in the same film made me buy it (although my girlfriends were discouraged!)

So after a marathon evening of Gladiator followed by Being John Malkovich, I popped this in the Video and was enthralled! The acting was great and the story relevant to real-life. Everybody goes through these problems, after all. The chemistry between Willie (Timothy Hutton) and Marty (the wonderful Natalie Portman) was brilliant - even though the subject is considered taboo.

Matt Dillion's little triangle with Mira Sorvino and Lauren Holly is an entertaining sideline and Michael Rapaport provides the comic relief as we watch his crumbling relationship with Martha Plimpton. Rosie O'Donnell is also hilarious as the down-to-earth ready-to-break-your-balls-if-you-step-out-of-line type who is happy to rip the rose coloured glasses from your face whenever she feels its necessary.

There is a real sense of friendship between this all-star cast and that really the defining factor in this film. However, the real stars are Hutton and Portman who are simply brilliant. She has perfected the little vixen role in Leon (aka The Professional) and although the characters of Mathilda and Marty are completely different, there is that little inkling of a girl wanting to be loved by a man in her performance. Hutton handles his role with care - and his Winnie-The-Pooh speech is simply heartbreaking!

My friends accuse me (rather accurately) for being a sap - for liking this 90's chic flick. But they are wrong about this movie. This movie is entertaining and sometimes fluffy, but more importantly it is real and timely. Amongst all the hype of the X-Gen, this movie boiled down our mood (all us kids who are still growing up) in a small town setting where the people were real (except for Rosie, she should have ended up on the editing room floor). The slight plot is less important than the setting and the circumstances. Winter in small town Massachusetts, on the frozen lakes, and the plowed roads and small taverns - on the edge of early mid-life adulthood for yet another lost generation...the movie leaves you with a cold warm snow feeling of hope and sorrow for people in transition, that usually only a classic novel (like those by F. Scott or Hemingway)can give you.

Channel surfing on a snowy day last winter, stumbled on this movie with an intriguing name: 'Beautiful Girls.' Found a terrific movie I had somehow missed when it came out. An incredible cast, great characters, sweet, funny, engaging, and good music to boot. I recently saved it on Tivo, and one of its many charms is that like a book you love, you can pick it up at any spot in the story and be engaged for 5-10-30 minutes or an hour, put it down, and pick it up again.

I keep telling my friends to rent it, but I think they are put off by the title –they expect some movie with Mira Sorvino, Uma Thurman, Natalie Portman, Lauren Holly, and Annabeth Gish to be something this movie isn't – an exploitative movie about 'beautiful girls' – when it is in fact a charming movie about how people move through life yet retain a sense of who they are if they can remember where they came from.

Update 7/1/11 I still love this movie!! I have to watch it at least once a year and I can't say that about too many movies (I've now seen this more than Star Wars IV). Please allow yourself time to kick back and enjoy a very believable story of Anywhere USA Americana. Below is my original review from many years ago. Thanks

Prior Review--

I love this movie. Too bad Demme is Donne because this is great work. Every single role is believable and not over-acted. Maybe it's my 30 something (now 40 something) mind working but this is a great movie to sit down and enjoy. Nothing blows up and I can't recall a single car chase but if you can allow yourself to get involved with a storyline, this is for you.

You can fall in love with Natalie Portman and I don't know that I've ever seen Rapaport in a better role. There isn't anyone more anti Rosie Odonell than me, but even her role is great. The bad news for friends and family is that I've stolen many lines from this flick because I'm not original enough to come up with my own stuff.

"What's he all creased about"

I would be first in line to purchase a (another) DVD that is Dolby Digital and has some extras. Lastly, don't miss the soundtrack, there is a great blend of feel good music along with some new, cool licks.

Piano player Willie Conway (Timothy Hutton) comes back to his old home town for a class reunion.There he meets his old high school buddies and

becomes interested in the neighbor called Marty (Natalie Portman), who's 13 years old.Beautiful Girls (1996) is a great movie from the late Ted Demme.It has a fantastic cast.Hutton is brilliant and there are also Matt Dillon, Noah Emmerich, Annabeth Gish, Lauren Holly, Rosie O'Donnell, Max Perlich, Uma Thurman, Mira Sorvino, Michael Rapaport, David Arquette and so on who all do great job in the movie.But I think it's Natalie Portman who almost steals the show.Every scene with her is pure gold.She has done a lot even though she's still young.She's been in Star Wars prequels, in Leon and I heard there might a sequel coming to that movie.So we will hear from her.The characters in this movie are really unique.They are people you care about.The dialog is wonderful and everything just works in this drama.Beautiful Girls is a movie for everybody who likes a good movie.