LOVELY AND AMAZING
US, 2002, Colour, Colour.
Catherine Keener, Emily Mortimer, Brenda Blethyn, Raven Goodwin, Dermot Mulrooney, Jake Gylenhaal, James Le Gros, Michael Nouri.
Directed by Nicole Holofcener.
Lovely and Amazing was written and directed by Nicole Holofcener, writer-director of Walking and Talking. This time she focuses on a mother and three daughters. The mother considers her daughters lovely and amazing. However, there are some difficulties for the audience to recognise both the aspects of what is lovely and what is amazing in their lives.
The film is very well acted, especially by Catherine Keener as Michelle, the oldest daughter, a mother, in a loveless
marriage who has a poor self-image, tries to do works of art/craft but fails to sell them. In desperation, she gets a
job in a one-hour photo shop and seduces the young man who manages the shop (Jake Gyllenhaal, October Sky, Donnie Darko). The second sister is played by British Emily Mortimer. She portrays a would-be actress who is rejected from auditions. However, she has a relationship with a self-centred leading star, played by Dermot Mulrooney. The third daughter is an adopted young black girl, played by Raven Goodwin. She is large, eats a lot, pretends to die as she floats in pools. However, all three are devoted to their mother, played by Brenda Blethyn, who goes into hospital for liposuction. The operation is not the success she expected and she spends some time in hospital. The visits of the daughters to the hospital, their own personal searches, form the core of the film.
Men fare rather badly in this film, especially James Le Gros as Catherine Keener's husband and Michael Nouri as the doctor. Dermot Mulrooney portrays what is worst in the egotistical actor.
A low-key drama, but a film which has different and
interesting characters.
1. A blend of the serious and the comic? A portrait of idiosyncratic characters, their interactions, their desperation?
2. A film created by women, writer-director, the central cast? The strong empathy for the women characters? The men on the periphery? Obstructing the development of the women?
3. The title and its use, Jane's reference to her daughters? Characters as lovely and amazing? The importance of loveliness and body image, vanity and rage?
4. The Los Angeles settings, homes, pools, studios, hotels, police stations? Authentic and realistic atmosphere?
5. The portrait of the family: Jane, memories of her husband, her experience, age, her decision to have liposuction? Going to the hospital, the attractiveness of the doctor? His reassurance? Her becoming sicker, not recovering? Going into coma? The background with her older daughters, her adapting (**adopting?) the young girl and caring for her? Her relationship to Michelle and her family, to Elizabeth? An encouraging mother?
6. The strength of the relationship between the sisters, the tensions? The focus on Annie and their taking care of her for their mother's sake?
7. The portrait of Annie, her age, black, adopted? Her liking to swim - and to pretend to be dead, floating in the pool? Her capacity for eating? Her love for her mother, her love for her sisters and yet the clash with them, especially Michelle? The issue of the straightened hair? Her visits to the hospital, staying with Michelle, meeting Michelle at McDonald's? Her making the bed and preparing everything for her mother's return home? The issue of adoption, age, the young girl and her sisters, a black African girl in this context?
8. Michelle and her age, her background, husband and children, her trying to sell her art and its being refused? Her friends and their support? Her relationship with Elizabeth, love, tension? Her husband and his complaints about her, wanting her to get a job? Her going to get the job, the friendship with Jordan, the beginning of the affair? His mother denouncing her? Caught by the police, going to the police station, humiliated? Allowed out, wandering, going to McDonald's, meeting Annie? A crisis in her life and the possibility for reshaping it?
9. Elizabeth as the younger sister, her age, experience, success and failure as an actor, her audition and its effect on her, the relationship with the star? Meeting him in the supermarket, the memories of their discussion after the audition, attracted to him, going home with him? His making her stand nude and his critique of her body? Her lack of self-confidence, going to the preview of the film? Her mother and the handling of the crisis, her devotion to her mother? Her weakness in looking after stray dogs as a symbol of her character?
10. The use of symbols throughout the film, Michelle's craft, Elizabeth's dogs, Annie and food, the pillows on her mother's bed?
11. The sketch of the agent, her double-talk, in the office, with Elizabeth, leading her on, the party, Michelle going to the party, introduced, talking with the agent - but being ignored?
12. The portrait of the actor, his ego, the audition and his passion, his self-conscious comments, the affair, his self-image?
13. The minor characters like the shopkeepers and their attitude towards Michelle and her work? The people at the hospital? The doctor and his misdiagnoses, his having to keep Jane in hospital longer?
14. Jane, her recovery, having her children about her, the possibility of a new life? This family as a microcosm of American families?
