Review of All the Real Girls (2003) by Steven B — 08 Aug 2009

This is a very dreamlike story of a romance between two twenty-somethings in a small mountain town. The characters may be archetypes for a movie of this type, but they worked for me just enough, for the most part.

Some might say that this movie has a slow pace, but it didn't seem like it too me. It was an emotional roller coaster, and I think that the way it was edited and the way that music was layered over top of many scenes instead of hiding behind them contributed to this unique feel.

The young actors did a great job and it was apparent that the young director David Gordon Green gave them a lot of freedom to express their characters. I liked this movie because it is one of the more realistic cinematic portrayals of young love.

The two main characters, Paul and Noel enter into the relationship heading in two opposite directions in their life, but appear perfectly matched anyway. (There's a sharp turn in store for them, but I won't spoil that.

) I like that there is not a lot of exposition- we only find out as much about the characters as would come up in a real conversation. There are also friendships and family that contribute to the story, although some are more meaningfully than others.

I think the family of Paul, was either not fleshed out in the best way or was edited in a way that made them seem somewhat superfluous to the main story. There was a lot more comic relief featuring Danny McBride that was edited out, which can be seen in the DVD's deleted scenes.

They are funny scenes, but I think it did make sense tonally to cut them from the film.