Written by Linda
December 02, 2008
When I heard that there was a movie coming out called Lovely & Amazing starring Catherine Keener, I thought to myself, "Well, of course! What else would you call it?" The fact that there is actually a plot, great co-stars, and a fabulous director to go with it just turned out to be a bonus in my book. Shoot, I'd go see a 2-hour film of Catherine Keener drinking coffee and reading the paper—and afterwards I'd leave the theater with a smile on my face, with the satisfaction of $8 well-spent.
And sometimes I wish the studio system of the Golden Age of Hollywood was still intact... you know, where an actor or director was specifically contracted with a specific movie studio to make a certain amount of films in a set amount of time? I'd handcuff Nicole Holofcener and Catherine Keener together, and force them to make at least 5 movies together every year, instead of one movie every 5 years (see their last collaboration, the fabulous and overlooked Walking and Talking).
Lovely & Amazing is one of those films that you can only call "slice-of-life," because it really isn't about anything. But that phrase can sound so dismissive, especially when you are talking about a movie starring a group of actresses, where the male characters are mainly peripheral. Jane Marks (Brenda Blethyn, sporting an American accent) is the single mother to three daughters: a bitter, edge-of-divorced housewife Michelle (Catherine Keener); sweet Elizabeth (Emily Mortimer), who is a struggling actress, and has major self-esteem issues; and probably the most stable and balanced of the whole family, Annie (Raven Goodwin), who happens to be 8-years old and black.
In order to get back at her husband (who is unsupportive of her hobby making and selling arts and crafts), Michelle takes a job at a photomat, where her boss is a flirtatious 17-year-old (Jake Gyllenhaal), who give her more flattering attention than she has had in years. Elizabeth tries out for a film part starring a hot but reputably sleazy actor (Dermot Mulroney), and they start an affair. Young Annie watches the crazy older women in her family, with a seeming all-knowing eye, but has issues of her own. And framing the film is 50-something Jane's decision to get liposuction surgery to feel more attractive.
There is no cohesive central plot in Lovely & Amazing to "bring it all together"; Nicole Holofcener simply takes her audience and plops them into the lives of these women for a couple of hours. These women are a little eccentric, but not bizarre. Scenes, like the one where Elizabeth asks her lover to honestly appraise all of her body parts on a scale of attractiveness, are both funny and heartbreaking. You may wince while you laugh, but you will relate. Lovely & Amazing is a slice-of-life film, yes, but is a very tasty and satisfying slice at that.
DVD NOTES
The DVD is pretty sparse on extras, unfortunately. Pretty much the only bonus is a series of short interview segments, where the cast and director chat amiably at the camera. Everyone is very chipper in your typical fresh-from-the-movie praise-a-thon way. With bits of conversations by Catherine Keener, Nicole Holofcener, Dermot Mulroney, and Emily Mortimer (Brenda Blethyn, where art thou?) spliced together, it becomes oddly obvious that they were not all in a room together during the interviews, as sound bites are poorly blended into themes, mysterious pronouns are thrown around, and tangents are random. Still, it's kind of cute to hear that all of the actors involved basically had huge crushes on each other during the making of the film.
