By Art Whittle
Cavalier Daily Senior Writer
"Lovely and Amazing," the newest limited release from Lions Gate Films, is a wonderful story of love and self-acceptance. The film showcases a non-traditional and therefore surprisingly inspirational family, giving viewers a new perspective on people, women's issues, coping and perseverance. "Lovely and Amazing" is brilliantly written, well-acted and extremely funny.
Written and directed by Nicole Holofcener ("Sex and the City"), "Lovely" gives us fragments from the lives of a mother and three sisters who live in the Los Angeles area. Jane Marks (Brenda Blethyn) is retired, with plenty of time on her hands for taking an active role in her daughters' lives. Let's just say they often need help.
Michelle (Catherine Keener) and Elizabeth (Emily Mortimer), the older sisters, are in their mid-thirties. After leaving the nest, their mother Jane decided to adopt Annie (Ravin Goodwyn), the daughter of a crackhead. Annie is 8 years old, making these four women quite an ensemble.
Each of these women struggle with insecurity -- they strive to be accepted, each looking to cure her flaws in the wrong place. Early in the film, Jane undergoes a liposuction operation that was originally intended to be an outpatient treatment. When an infection keeps her in the hospital for days, viewers can't help but blame her initial decision.
Michelle is headstrong, which becomes obvious as she shouts obscenities at people she dislikes. She uses this strategy on anyone who will not sell her artwork on consignment. Needless to say, it is less effective on her husband Bill (Clark Gregg).
In turn, Bill has grown cold to Michelle, accusing her of not pulling her weight financially, even though he's the one having an affair with the neighbor. Michelle, trying to make the right decisions about her marriage, gets a job at a one-hour photo store, working under 17-year-old Jordan (Jake Gyllenhaal).
Elizabeth is an actress that is about to appear in her first movie -- one in which she gets a grand total of two scenes. She is obsessed with her appearance, particularly with her floppy, bony arms. Elizabeth does yoga with her boyfriend and drives him a little crazy with all of the stray dogs she collects.
Annie battles insecurity as well. In an early scene, she asks Jane why her skin can't be the same color as everybody else's. Later, when Michelle and her neighbor are putting sunscreen on their daughters, Annie wonders why she can't have some. "Because you're lucky." Michelle says. "Your skin is already brown." Tough ground for an 8-year-old kid.
All of these women obsess over their looks. In the opening scene, a magazine photographer is shooting Elizabeth in a negligee -- a prime advertisement for the upcoming movie. Her insecurity not only reminds us that models have to be perfect, but it gives us a glimpse into every woman's fear.
Elizabeth carries this burden into a later scene in which a star actor named Kevin (Dermot Melroney) takes her to bed. She wants to know how he feels about her, so she insists that he point out all of her physical flaws while she stands naked before him. Kevin does tell the brutal truth, but it is really her own lack of self-esteem that sinks the encounter.
"Lovely and Amazing" depends on its great comic timing. The women's neurotic behavior fuels a complex drama and yet provides us with a lot of laughs. Unlike other mundane mother-daughter films ("Yaya"), "Lovely" provides its women with choices and realistic coping mechanisms. It amazes me that a movie can be so much more believable and, perhaps because of that, so much funnier than its contemporaries.
Jake Gyllenhaal sets up some good comedic moments as the bewildered teenager, Jordan. When his mom finds out about the secret "affair," Michelle tries to deny it but Jordan boastfully responds, "We're lovers!" Only through the mouth of a teenager.
Ravin Goodwin is so precious as the adopted daughter that she makes you want to cry and laugh at the same time. She delivers her lines so simply that the audience must think about so many things: what does an adopted child have to go through? What does a black child in a family of whites have to deal with? What does a young girl in a family of middle-aged women deal with?
In the end, we don't get definitive answers to these questions. The characters deal with the cards they've been dealt as best they can and we simply watch them. In fact, this film is more like a portrait than a story, almost without a plot. If viewers could tune in a week earlier or a week later, we would see almost the same thing.
It's the freshness of the characters and the freshness of their struggles that bring "Lovely and Amazing" to life. These women are not heroines or examples. They merely give us (or Holofcener gives us) something special by sharing their lives with us.
If you're a man, you are guaranteed to learn something by watching this movie. If you are a woman, please drag a man to see it. He might not put all the pieces together, but it sure will spark some interesting discussion.
Five Stars
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