She's So Lovely

Maureen is a bit strung out and pregnant from her low-life husband Eddie. Their lives are an unpredictable mix of actions that mostly involve drinking and scamming round on the fringe of society. When Eddie is "away" for a few days, Marueen falls in drinking with neighbour Kiefer, who tries to rape her but then just beats her. She explains this away to Eddie so as to keep him from going crazy at her or anyone else but when he does start to flip she calls the paramedics to take him into care for his own safety. However when he shoots one of them, Eddie is sentenced to a mental institution. When he comes out he finds that Maureen has divorced him and has moved onto a much more stable and reliable man in the form of Joey, with whom she has had more children.

Almost halfway in it becomes evident that this film isn't going to work out that well because, before the "10 years later" jump, the love between the two leads hasn't been established to a convincing degree. Given that the narrative is using this mutual attraction (despite all the negatives) as its lynchpin this is a bit of a problem. Other than establishing that both are unstable and using each other for meaning, the film doesn't do that much for all the time it takes up. The second half isn't that much better as Eddie comes out as a sort of watered down Rainman and disrupts Maureen's new relationship with Joey. The script then asks us to swallow that she still loves Eddie to the point where the mere news that he is released sees her flush the last ten years down the toilet.

I can sort of understand what the script was trying to do but it didn't manage to produce anything interest in the aggressive relationships that it paints in the gutter. The characters are where the main failing is. Maureen's character is poorly defined and Wright-Penn doesn't appear to understand what motivates her character and thus turns in a really mixed performance that pushes emotional buttons in each scene but is never consistent. Eddie is OK in the first half of the film as he just seems like a drunk unstable loser but in the second half he is unconvincingly soft. Likewise Penn is strong in the first half but he is unconvincing in the second. Their performances aren't helped by a weird mix of tones – at times a dark love story, at other times a cringingly awful "comedy" complete with "jaunty" music being played over a fight on the front lawn or that horrible scene at Joey's bar. Travolta is a bit better and Stanton is a reasonably nice addition in a small role.

Overall this is a shocking mess of a film that spirals downhill from the mid-point onwards. The first half shows potential but doesn't manage to pull off the formative stages of the central relationship and thus fails to set up the second half. However the second half isn't helped by poor development and a terrible mishmash of "comic" moments that simply feel crass and out of place – I suspect even if the first half had been a stormer, this second half would have been poor enough to drag it all under. Even the acting talent seems all at sea and unsure of where they stand or who they are. A load of rubbish with little or no value.

The beginning credits were difficult for me to read, thus I was not cognizant of the writer or director. Sometime into the film, I pondered the striking resemblance of numerous scenes to the work of John Cassavetes. Later, I impressed myself with the discovery of his name on the video package. Cassavetes wrote and directed some excellent cinema, but this film is more akin to his dismal "Big Trouble". The script is fragmentary and lacked character motivation. The story introduces Penn and Wright as urban lovers, then suddenly switches pace when Penn has a mental episode and is institutionalized. Resuming ten years later, Penn is released only to find Wright married to another loser. As her husband, Travolta reminded me of his "Pulp Fiction" character constantly cursing and chain smoking. Unfortunately, the scenes between Penn and him are flat. I don't understand Travolta's emotional reactions to his unrealistic predicament, while Penn remains mentally incapacitated like De Niro in "The Awakenings". Wright is fine, but her role is ill-defined. It was good to see Harry Stanton with a sizable part, and Debi Mazar is alluring with her Betty Page looks. I would recommend skipping this film and seeing "Husbands", "Faces", or "A Woman under the Influence". 2 out of 4 stars.

Nick follows in the footsteps of his old man, John Cassavetes, who supplied the screenplay and you can tell because the down and out characters walk about with cigarette in one hand and a glass of booze in the other. This is a very simple tale of manic love told with care.

I saw this film earlier in the year expecting some ordinary performances but most of all to be really twisted thanks to Nick Cassavetes. I'll say this, the movie is a little twisted but the acting was anything but ordinary.

Robin Wright Penn plays off her character, Maureen and her real life husband so well that it effects her performance of a mobster's poor girlfriend.

James Gandolfini is great as a sleazy, creepy neighbour Kiefer, another great portrayal from James even though he isn't that big of a character. He's done so many different films but it always seems to be him who sparks up the film. He was great as the father in "The Mighty" he was fantastic as the gay hitman the disappointing "The Mexican", as the tough Bear in "Get Shorty" and i'm sure he's going to be magnificant in the next Coens movie / musical. He never seizes to amaze me.

But the real gem here is Sean Penn as mobster Eddie. I know he won Best Actor at a festival, to which i'm not so sure but he shines in this movie. His love for Maureen is really sweet as he'd do anything for her, whatever it takes. There's this one scene with Sean and Robin where Sean displays some incredible acting ability. I haven't seen "I Am Sam" yet but i heard that it isn't that great of a movie but he must have done something right to earn an Oscar Nomination. I only hope he doesn't get washed up because it really would be a pity.

Travolta played a character simular to the evil Sean Archer in "Face / Off" but times 10 in this. He plays Joey but in order to explain his character would spoil this movie. Even though he only appears for the last 20 or so minutes, you have to remember this was the kid "Saturday Night Fever" and Danny Zuko from "Grease". He remains one of a kind and shows that he can pull off playing a bastard good too.

The story is not the greatest but it is a sweet movie that has violent turns. The screenplay has it's moments but it's the actors who make the movie. To simply put it... It's So Lovely!

As a filmmaker John Cassavetes was always challenging his audience. He wanted to shake people out of their traditional patterns of the way people watch movies. He wanted to constanly stay one step ahead of viewers and challenge them to keep up. If you know this, any Cassavetes movie is a rewarding viewing experience. If you are unaware of this, you will surely be lost like so many reviewers I've read here are. SHE'S SO LOVELY is Nick Cassavetes paying tribute to his father's unique and often misunderstood style. The characters, like real people, do not know what they are going to do from one moment to the next. This is what makes the movie so funny, unpredictable - and so honest and true to life - that it makes some uncomfortable. Alot of critics have stated that it is unrealistic that a mother would ever leave her family under the circumstances presented here, but until you've been in a similar situation how can you really say? At any rate, one thing you can never accuse this movie of being is predictable. John Cassavetes often recut his movies even when people liked them. If he were still alive, he would probably be delighted to read all the negative reviews here, because they all point to one thing: Cassavettes has done it again. He has shaken people out of their set ways of watching movies and no one seems to be hip to it - yet. Like any great jazz artist, the work of John Cassavetes may be misunderstood at first, but finds it's audience eventually. He is somewhere laughing, knowing he has done his job. If you don't agree, keep this review in mind and watch this movie again/for the first time. Like all of his films, SHE'S SO LOVELY improves with repeat viewings.