Lovely and Amazing (Widescreen)

 

 

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Lovely and Amazing is a feminine picture (albeit still watchable for a man) and it is also a deeply depressing story that briefly peaks into the lives of two women and their mother. It is slow and somewhat awkward but it retains it's positive side at the end with notably almost no resolution whatsoever. The film paces itself very slowly, yet somehow works well because it is written and handled with a refreshing eye. Nicole Hilofcenter (Sex and the City) directs.

Catherine Keener plays one of the daughters, Michelle, a 36 year old unemployed mother of one young daughter. Her husband is easy to relate to for a man and his patience as a character is exceptional because Keener's character has a highly volatile temper and she is for what it's worth completely unreasonable, yet somehow likeable at the same time. She sees herself as an artist and we watch her fail at that and then become a clerk at a one hour photo. There she has an affair with her 17 year old boss played by Jake Gyllenhaul. Things unfold for her as expected and I for one feel she gets what she deserves.

Her insecure younger sister Elizabeth, played by Emily Mortimer, on the other hand is originally dealt a fair hand and ironically gets it taken away as her insecurities are realized. She sleeps with an actor who is boorish enough to be honest about whether she is sexy or pretty enough to be an actress. You see, her being self-centered is seen as a requirement and that actually made it more fun for me to watch her fail. She is finished with her one night stand with this actor, and asks that he critique her body. She stands naked in front of him in a surprising, awkward and daring (for Mortimer) sequence. Mortimer is certainly attractive enough to watch her fully nude for this long but it's such a cold and bleak scene that really comes out of nowhere, it is certainly not meant to be sensual. She comes as who she is, vulnerable and probably not ready to enter the world of acting. The film is loaded with moments like this that go against the grain and ultimately help the characters get used to themselves as much as they may resist.

Their mother is in the midst of getting liposuction and the risks of surgery do indeed show themselves. She has adopted a young African American girl which makes for some interesting comments regarding race as well as she is enrolled in a "Big Sister" kind of program to get exposure to another black person. It's unfortunate that so little is said about their mother's past because she really ought to be the center of the film. Her story and her adopted daughter's story may have been intended to be delved into further...perhaps some was left on the cutting room floor.

All of the characters' fits of selfish vanity are always answered. That seems to be the running theme and it gives you a different outlook on these things despite these characters being fundamentally good people. Is it really so wrong to ignore or displace blame for your own vanity so easily? If so, isn't it society that is doing it to us or should we be accountable for it? Do we create our surrounding culture enough to pay the price for being ingrained within it's sins? Is there anything we can do about it? I know one thing, my latest job interview may go a hell of a lot better if I comb my hair and where a really nice suit then if I don't. Then again just like anything, vanity has it's excesses. Just as Lovely and Amazing finishes it's value in helping us ask interesting questions, it ends as unconventionally as it unfolds. It's no classic, but it is films like this that if other filmmakers take note it can certainly provide different avenues for expression.

This is the second film that writer/director Nicole Holofcener has made, and I think that she has succeeded very well in making a highly original film with very interesting characters. Some people feel that the dialog is very good, although on occasion it felt a bit off to me. The story doesn't really go much of anywhere, but that's not really the point of a film like this. The acting in this movie was uniformly very good among the women.

"Lovely and Amazing" documents several days in the life of a mother and her three daughters. The mother, Jane (Brenda Blethyn), is in the midst of a mid-life crisis and decides to service herself through a liposuction treatment. As she is going through with the procedure, she asks her daughter Michelle (Catherine Keener) to take care of her younger, adopted sister Annie (Raven Goodwin). Michelle is a house-wife/artist who becomes so enthralled in her work of home-made miniature chairs that she asks ridiculous prices for them before storming out of stores at their disapproval. The third sister, Elizabeth (Emily Mortimer), is rescuing homeless dogs in between visits to her agent. Having just completed her roll in a Hollywood film, Elizabeth does her best to stay a humanitarian en route to what she wants to be success.

Eventually, all four women's problems are projected in full effect. Jake Gyllenhaal reprises his role as the adolescent roué who somehow ends up bedding Catherine Keener (just like Jennifer Aniston in "The Good Girl"). He is perfectly cast with his dark, sultry looks, and wild puppy eyes. Raven Goodwin played her part naturally well and shined on every scene. She is clearly a very talented actress and I've notice recently a lot of child actors on screen are really getting better in their roles. Finally we have Aunjanue Ellis who I believe is one of the most underrated African-American females on the screen today who has dramatize her role just as well as the rest of the cast, she seriously needs to have bigger parts to show off her full abilities. The men in the film have smaller roles because this is a film about (but not exclusively for) women. They include Jane's cosmetic surgeon, Michelle's husband, Elizabeth's boyfriend, Kevin McCabe (a star who Elizabeth reads for a part with, played by Dermot Mulroney).

"Lovely & Amazing" is a crazy entertaining movie. It has everything, liposuction, statutory rape, fast food, show business, and possibly rabies. Director Nicole Holefcener apparently had a lot to say and I quite enjoyed it. If you're a fan of any of these actors, then I would recommend this movie to you.

This movie was pretty entertaining and I enjoyed it considering I'm not normally a big fan of the drama genre...The service and delivery went reallly well and I would feel quite comfortable ordering future older, hard-to-come by DVD's this way using Amazon in the future...I had a very positive experience w/this!!

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3.0 out of 5 stars Film that's full of humor, but no resolution
There are good performances in this film and interesting subjects that are brought up, but there is a serious flaw here and that's the fact that it doesn't face up to the issues... Read more

Published on Jun 9 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful
Lovely & Amazing surprised me at the sheer content of sociological examination. Nearly every scene exposes a glimpse at unspoken, or rather rarely-spoken, idiosyncracies in... Read more

Published on May 27 2004 by Ella Quin

3.0 out of 5 stars Lacked coherence.
Lovely and Amazing (Nicole Holofcener, 2001)

Nicole Holofcener (Sex and the City, Gilmore Girls, Six Feet Under) delivers her second feature film in which a lot of people do a... Read more

Published on Dec 4 2003 by Robert P. Beveridge

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely and Amazing is truely Lovely and Amazing
This is a movie of long dialogue scenes, don't expect action, it may seem slow for some people, but in fact it's a heart-warming drama. Read more

Published on Oct 25 2003 by Abdullah Al-Gemzi

3.0 out of 5 stars POIGNANT & WELL MADE, BUT ULTIMATELY DEPRESSING..
The good things about the movie: it is very real, and captures the idiosynchrasies of the women remarkably well (a mother and her two daughters through a period of change. Read more

Published on Oct 10 2003 by Shashank Tripathi

3.0 out of 5 stars a series of well-acted vignettes
While I didn't think this film cohered well, there were a number of interesting scenes featuring a gifted cast -- Brenda Blethyn, Catherine Keener, Dermot Mulroney, Emily Mortimer... Read more

Published on July 19 2003 by audrey

3.0 out of 5 stars A smart, responsible take on dysfunctional women.
"Lovely and Amazing" is much of what "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" never was. Read more

Published on April 17 2003 by Samuel McKewon

4.0 out of 5 stars the title describes the film!!!
The four females in "Lovely & Amazing" look at themselves through a self-cracked mirror. Jane (Brenda Blethyn) is a well-off woman in her 50s who cares enough about others to... Read more

Published on April 13 2003 by Mark Twain

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best...
This movie completely bowled me over with it's honesty, clever writing, and wonderful performances. It is one of the BEST films EVER that speaks of the challenges of the human... Read more

Published on Mar 26 2003 by BrooklynBEM

3.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't Quite Live Up To Its Potential
"Lovely and Amazing" is an interesting, well-acted film about family and relationships, and the struggles of the individuals in them. Read more

Published on Mar 19 2003 by A. Eby

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