Review of Beautiful Girls (1996) by Steven K — 27 Mar 2008

Funny. Real. Shakespearean. Okay, so this one might actually be characterized as a personal favorite. But where Breakfast At Tiffany's and The Blues Brothers have obvious faults that itch and chafe on multiple viewings, Beautiful Girls is always smart, funny and worth watching again and again.

The film, directed by the late Ted Demme, is a modern day Shakespearean comedy. It is domestic (focusing on the malaise of a man who needs to marry and "grow up") and takes place primarily in a "green world" (though, technically, it is more of a winter world). See, Shakespearean comedies follow a simple pattern: They start out with a sense of order; this order is disrupted early on and the middle acts include a series of discoveries and mishaps (think Midsummer Night's Dream); the comedies end with a restoration of order (usually in a marriage). Beautiful Girls follows this same pattern: Will (Timothy Hutton) returns home for a high school reunion and ponders marriage to his not-quite-perfect girlfriend. The film ends with his acceptance of middle age and the "promise" that everything will be okay (that he will get married). But like all great Shakespearean comedies, the characters don't get off that easy. See, the trick is that there really is no resolution. Will's foil (played smartly by Natalie Portman in her second major film role) artfully tempts and questions him. When Will and his "fiancé" drive off into the credits, we question the sincerity of his decision...

And this brings us to the one film on this list that I would argue is "real." This film is funny and engaging, but it also hits really close to home. Would I have liked this film this much if I were not thirty-two? Well, yes. I saw it for the first time at twenty-two and it struck chords with me then. And that may be the film's ultimate appeal: It doesn't get old because the issues it tackles are universal, the characters archetypal.