Lovely and Amazing
Directed by Nicole Holofcener
Starring Catherine Keener, Brenda Blethyn, Emily Mortimer, Raven Goodwin and Jake Gyllenhaal
Rated R for language and nudity

Ok, bear with me here. There's a thing in philosophy of science (as well as other disciplines) known as feminist standpoint theory. The general idea is that, due to who they are and their outlook on the world, certain people, in this case feminist women, have special access to certain kinds of knowledge. In other words, there are some truths that you have to be a girl to get. Now I'm certainly not an expert in that area, but I was always a bit skeptical as to how this sort of thing got you anywhere when it came to illuminating the sciences. Where it does have a lot of explanatory power, however, is in the arts, where what you bring to a work often has a giant influence on what you get out of it. You need to have a certain background in order to understand certain jokes. John Singleton and Spike Lee films strike different chords with white and black people. Maybe if you're a robotic replacement child, A.I. is really touching. Vicki from Small Wonder probably cried for weeks. To bring this all back to somewhere in the neighborhood of relevancy, it's my opinion that you'd have to be a middle-aged American woman in order to fully appreciate Nicole Holofcener's Lovely & Amazing. A smart-ass 21-year-old male such as myself can certainly find it funny and occasionally charming, but it takes a certain way of seeing things for the majority of it not come off as trivial and sort of dull.

The film has a simple, unspectacular narrative but I'd suggest that the movie is best thought of as a kind of variations-on-a-theme film. The theme is the contemporary female's obsession with physical appearance and the way in which this neurosis forces people away from their true selves. The film moves where this surface obsession takes it, the plot events occurring almost as byproducts. Each of the main characters goes through a significant physical transformation with the exception of Catherine Keener's Michelle who, despite her deficiencies, is the only one who stays true to her self.

It should be noted that each of these main characters are females. Holofcener's script relegates males to such classic roles as the Insensitive Boyfriend, the Adulterous Husband and the ever-popular Sex-crazed Egotist. This film is only interested in dealing seriously with women's issues and while I'm not personally offended by the implicit male-bashing that goes on, I think I'll have to be excused for not quite connecting with the movie. The issues addressed don't cross gender lines particularly well but there is a certain age and class upon which it seems likely to make a strong impact.

The film's strongest point is its humor, with most of that deriving from Keener's excellent comedic performance. The brilliant quirkiness she exhibited in Being John Malkovich shines through and is matched beautifully to the quick and clever dialogue Holofcener's provides her. The young Raven Goodwin also puts on a good show as a small overweight black girl adopted into by Michelle's rich white mother. She's funny and effective. The rest of the cast is good enough with star in the making (I think) Jake Gylanhaal producing the only male performance of note.

Lovely & Amazing is a well-written story full of symbols and themes. While I can't quite connect with the characters or their dilemmas, I can understand how the right kind of person might. The script is a good piece of literature and the performances are better than adequate. Just the same, it really doesn't impress as a film. There's nothing particularly cinematic about the story or the way that Holofcener chooses to direct it. Visually the film is quite dull with the exception of Keener's skill with facial expressions. There's also a prolonged nude seen with the very cute Emily Mortimer, if you like that sort of thing. Other than that there's nothing up on the screen that couldn't be communicated equally well through another medium. This isn't a bad movie and it does have its charms, but Holofcener is just too satisfied to make her mark with only one kind of person and to do so in only one kind of way.

Rating 48%