MY LAST FIVE GIRLFRIENDS
UK, 2009, 87 minutes, Colour.
Brendan Patricks, Naomie Harris, Kelly Adams, Cecile Cassell, Jane March, Edith Bukovics.
Directed by Julian Kemp.
A brief romantic comedy – or, perhaps, an anti-romantic comedy, British style.
Duncan is lovelorn and writes a suicide note to his last five girlfriends and is seen to proceed to do the deed. Then the film rewinds and we go through five short stories, Duncan and his love for the girlfriends. Brendan Patricks is engaging enough to persuade us that the girls could be interested in him and that we should be sympathetic towards him as each episode ends – though he really is a doofus, or one of those words. The women who portray these girlfriends do quite a good job, attractive, with their own eccentricities but unable to make a go of it with Duncan.
Apart from the good performances and some humorous and some witty dialogue, it is the inventiveness of the director's imagination which makes lots and lots of visual jokes in different filming styles, a blend of realism and Duncan's fantasies, that makes the film better than the average romcom.
There is a joke at the end with the credits and Duncan's suicide attempt and the reminder that the romantic quest is a never-ending story.
1. An entertaining twist on a romantic comedy? Men’s response? Women’s response?
2. The London settings, the detail of environments, streets, homes, restaurants…? The sequences in Paris? The theme park and its imagination? The musical score?
3. The various devices to illustrate Duncan’s imagination – the flashbacks, the Barbie story, the theme park and the various houses? The style of photography? The surprises every so often in the style of the film?
4. Duncan, the initial letter, scratching out the words, the suicide note, his desperation, wanting to affect the five girlfriends? His taking the tablets and collapsing? The irony of the ending and the credits coming up? His halting them, explaining that he took vitamin C, frothing, surviving?
5. Duncan as a character, his capacity for relationships? Or not? His work and design? With Will? His finally receiving an award and his drunken acceptance and telling the audience what had happened to him? His capacity for relating, committing? His attempts and their effect on him?
6. The story of the girlfriends and their characters:
(i) Wendy. Wendy on the plane, his sitting next to her, his imagining that this was destiny? Their talking, her slowness, her charm, his saying he collected airline sick bags and his father writing stories? Her work in design? The relationship, her dependence on him, the phone calls, going? Alex and the previous relationship? The holidays together? The differing moods? Wendy finally calling things off and going back to Alex?
(ii) Olive, her charm, her poise, his adapting to her personality? Yet her indecisiveness, wanting to accommodate? At the restaurant, the various meetings, the relationship? The chocolate dessert – his allergy, being sick, the breaking of the romance?
(iii) Rhona, ordinary, thinking that this was the real thing, his being on the roller coaster, the seats as the shoes? Rhona’s shoes, the salesman and his pitch? Duncan and his reaction, the blunt telling of the truth to Rhona, her reaction? The party, their not going, the break-up?
(iv) Natalie, on the rebound, Natalie as a personality, the toy elephant, Duncan’s reaction, not committed?
(v) Gemma, his meeting with Gemma, at the party, seeing her in the supermarket, putting the socks in her bag, her being stopped by security, her argument, his coming to the rescue? The relationship, Gemma in herself, the girl of Duncan’s dreams? The difficulties arising? His partner? Gemma and her confession to being with his partner? The break-up?
7. The finale, his getting the five girlfriends out of his system – his stereo and listening, the woman downstairs and her complaints, coming to the door – and the whole process starting again?
