All the Real Girls

A perfect movie to watch if you're in the mood to just chill out and watch the sunset but it's already dark. It offers the meditative sensation of Baraka combined with a nearly pitch perfect portrayal of a small town slice of life topped off with an inherently interesting 'young love' story. My only thoughts for the filmmaker (and in my opinion a significant oversight) would be to figure out how to wrap up the story without affecting the tone... the last quarter felt tedious as you began to expect the traditional dramatic/thematic resolution and therefore anticipate the number of scenes to come; which work best when you're not intellectually involved but emotionally - or even better - intuitively involved.... once the brain clicks in, the experience becomes of one of anticipation and with a film like this, impatience.

David Gordon Green's 'All the Real Girls' falls on the lines of 'Blue Valentine' and '500 Days of Summer'. The story is set in some Southern town in Appalachia and it pretty much centres around a young couple, Paul and Noel. Their relationship is complex but their feelings of affection for one another are no doubt real. The small-town setting appears to look quite authentic and it's captured well by decent cinematography.

The pacing, especially in the first half, is quite slow but this also allows one to see how the relationship between Paul and Noel build up. I felt that sometimes the writers and directors were trying too hard to make the film quirkier and, as such, a few sequences look forced or seem out of place. Even the humour is sometimes forced.

Zooey Deschanel steals the show as the vulnerable Noel. Many seem to comment that she can't do anything outside playing quirky. Well, this is one of her less quirky roles. One may draw parallels between Noel and Summer (Zooey's character in '500 Days of Summer') mostly because of the similar storyline even though the characters are almost completely different. Paul Schneider does a decent job. There are certain sequences where it's hard to tell whether he's being funny or was that not the intention. But he has good chemistry with Deschanel. Shea Whigham provides good support and Patricia Clarkson is outstanding.

I was disappointed by the ending. I'm not saying that I wanted a happier ending but at least one where the story is heading somewhere rather than finish abruptly.

In a small town, Paul (Paul Schneider) and Tip (Shea Whigham) are best friends, and Paul is the great seducer, having shagged twenty-six girls in the town. When Tip's sister Noel (Zooey Deschanel) and Paul date and fall in love for each other, the friendship of Tip and Paul is shaken. After a short trip of Noel to a house nearby a lake with her girlfriends, the relationship of Paul and Noel changes.

"All the Real Girls" is a very real and simple love story. The situations in this low-budget movie are very convincing, and the cast is really good. Zooey Deschanel is a really a beautiful woman, has a stunning performance and shows a great chemistry with Paul Schneider. The participation of Patricia Clarkson in a support role is excellent as usual. The open end fits adequately to this single and awarded romance. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Prova de Amor" ("Proof of Love")

"All the Real Girls" is a beautiful effort by writer/director David Gordon Green to visualize inarticulate people as they struggle with love.

The scenic North Carolina landscape surrounds the characters as they seek, unsuccessfully, for comparable inner beauty with romance and family. But human interactions can't be as perfect as a sunset.

Every person here is hurting in some way (including a widower uncle and a developmentally disabled brother), and if they aren't in the beginning they are by the end as they have to learn to stop idealizing the people they love, who can't live up to that. Some reconcile to it, some can't, and none can explain it.

In this small town, everyone knows everyone's business and heart and can't walk away from that intimacy. While that is realistic and the dialogue is very naturalistic, it's a bit unsatisfying to watch as a romantic drama.

Hunky co-creator Paul Schneider (strikingly like young Kevin Costner) sets up the confusion when he tries to convince us he's the town heartbreaker; I did not pick up for quite awhile that he was supposed to be such a bad boy as he just seemed so sweet from the first scene on. His laidback scenes with aggressive Zooey Deschanel are full of such tenderness as the full force of First True Love hits them, that the disappointments that follow are are quite the downer.

"Tully" had very similar character and story arcs, and, while schmaltzier, was more satisfying as a movie experience.

The alt-country instrumental and song soundtrack, including Mark Olson & the Creekdippers, is quite poignant.

World premiere at SUNDANCE 2003. Has a distributor (Sony) and will be in limited release on February 14

OFFICIAL PLOT SUMMARY: Twenty-two-year-old Paul lives with his beloved mom and works as a grease monkey in a broken down North Carolina mill town. Unambitious, he has a devoted circle of rowdy friends and a reputation as a callous heartbreaker. When he meets his best friend's sister Noel, fresh from her boarding school graduation, the two fall into a perfect, real, terrifying love. They share innermost secrets and inhabit a sweet, dreamy bubble of mutual admiration and understanding.

COMMENTS: The film has to be accepted on its own terms. Slow-paced, sensitive, and dreamy, it gets deep inside of its characters. Paul may be a callous seducer, but he's so gentle with the girl he loves, that he won't even take her virginity when they get a hotel room. When she makes some mistakes that he considers betrayal, this blue-collar tough guy is just as heartbroken and emotionally vulnerable as anybody with more "refinement". Although he is a mechanic in a Southern podunk town, his character is portrayed without any Southern or working class stereotypes.

It's a collaborative movie made by college buddies. Director David Gordon Green and star Paul Schneider also co-wrote the screenplay, and went to college together. Editor Zene Baker is another college buddy. I suppose you might truly call this a true collaboration. Green has the title of director, but when your two best buds are also your editor and screenwriter, not to mention the fact that one of them is on camera constantly, it's difficult to say where one person's contribution ends and another's begins.

If you would enjoy a slice of life comedy/drama that will probably evoke many memories of how you felt when you won and then lost your first love, this is an effective and heartfelt personal statement about that moment of time. The small town locales and the original score work to perfection.

Not the way we were in the Hollywood sense, and maybe not a big box office kind of picture, but an insightful look at the way we really were.

These young fellas are good, dawg!