She's So Lovely . Tucson Weekly . 09-08-97

She's So Lovely

DIRECTED BY: Nick Cassavetes

REVIEWED: 09-08-97

This movie, starring Sean Penn, Robin Wright Penn and John Travolta, was made from a screenplay written by John Cassavetes, founding father of independent film. Armed with little more than a 16mm camera and friends who were very good actors, Cassavetes made intense, intimate films about lost, boozy characters who lived their lives in perpetual crisis. His son Nick directed She's So Lovely from a script that's vintage Cassavetes--full of confused, screaming, warm-hearted barflies overflowing with a voracious, destructive form of love. Robin Wright Penn and Sean Penn play Mo and Eddie, a husband and wife team of two broken pieces that fit together perfectly. But when Eddie ends up in the loony bin, Mo divorces him and marries another man. Ten years later, Eddie is released and Mo must decide if she will stay with her family or go with her true love. Cassavetes screenplay, though wonderful in many ways, doesn't make the jump to the '90s very gracefully--it was written at a time when cocktails were anything but a retro fad and drunks were considered "funny" guys who chased pink elephants. Now She's So Lovely looks like a cautionary tale about the damage alcohol can do, though surely it was never intended to be moralistic in this way. Also, though Robin Wright Penn gives a respectable performance, it just doesn't carry the film. Cassavetes probably meant the part for his wife, Gena Rowlands, who always brought an amazing warmth and charisma to Cassavetes' off-kilter, emotionally driven characters. When she appears briefly as Eddie's psychologist, it becomes all too apparent that this movie is lacking its central element.

--Richter

Full Length Reviews
She's So Lovely
She's So Lovely

Capsule Reviews
She's So Lovely

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