Review of Beautiful Girls (1996) by Frances H — 21 Apr 2016

I was actually dreading to watch this movie since most similar genre movies end up to be melodramatic, preachy and finally sappy. My expectation started to turn out true with an irritating opening song through the credits and character introductions, but like the movie - I couldn't get the song out of my head now. Be it Michael Rapaport's unending bickering and whining, suave looks of Uma Thurman and then a masterstroke in a mature than her age teenager role of Natalie Portman. Adding her performance with 'Leon - The Professional', Natalie Portman is yesteryear's Chloe Mortez - but that is being generous for Chloe. Every serious, melodramatic moment has a fresh twist to make it entertaining, every character superbly defined and stay true to their character till the end. It was all in all an excellent ensemble performance from all involved appraising an equally well written script.

Willie (Timothy Hutton) is at a crossroads with his career going nowhere as a musician and his relationship stuck due to his commitment phobia. He decides to comeback to his hometown to attend his high school reunion while catching up on his old friends Tommy (Matt Dillon), Mo (Noah Emmerich) and Paul (Michael Rapaport) each going through different phases in their life and relationships. When Willie thinks nothing could go any worse, he falls for a 13 year old Marty (Natalie Portman).

There is a wicked sense of humor here commonly not associated with movies of that era. While the director treasures and elevates some key moments, also tries to keep it a little lighter and borderline quirky. What this movie required was not great performances but spontaneous ones and gets plenty of them from the able cast, especially little Natalie Portman. The background score could have been better except for the irritatingly catchy opening song which is used extensively throughout the movie. There is a little lull somewhere before the last quarter part of the movie, but picks up quite well leading to a predictable yet well executed finish.

A rare male perspective romantic comedy with a superb spontaneous ensemble performance.